So Far: Best of Sinead O'Connor

Sinead O'Connor | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 25, 1997)
• Original Release Date: November 25, 1997
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Capitol
• ASIN: B000002TM3
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (43 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #21,316 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

CD

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brief History Of a Tortured Genius, August 14, 2004

By 

Glenn Nippert "musicologist" (Alpharetta, Georgia United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: So Far: Best of Sinead O'Connor (Audio CD)

Sinead O'Connor has to be one of the most heartbreaking and frustrating artists to emerge in the last 20 years. Her first two albums(both appropriately spotlighted on this collection)were masterpieces that showed one of the greatest new talents I had ever heard. She was 17 years old when her first album came out and she defied genre and desription as an artist. She was simply a force of nature, which quickly became a problem that worked against her. Her bizarre statements and erratic and eccentric personality soon completely overshadowed her recorded work and people didn't buy her records because they just didn't like her. To be fair to the CD buying public her albums became pretty spotty after the first two anyway and she seemed to drift further and further from her rightful place in the musical pantheon of Dylan, Van Morrison and Aretha Franklin where she belonged. The best of the later recordings are all here-"You Made Me The Thief Of Your Heart" from the "In The Name Of The Father" movie soundtrack, "Fire On Babylon" and her version of "Don't Cry For Me Argentina". Currently, Sinead has announced her retirement, but hopefully she will return with a freshly shaved head and more of her twisted celtic soul, until then, we have this great collection to keep us company.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars so far.... a star, August 24, 2000

By 

Kevin O' Connor (Ireland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: So Far: Best of Sinead O'Connor (Audio CD)

I recently got this CD, just to get to know Sinead's music. I'm Irish myself, so i thought it was about time to see what the big deal was all about. I have even seen Sinead in concert in Chicago at the Irish Fleadh, but only knew "nothing compares 2 U". Now i wish i had bought this cd first. I found such an amazing array of sounds on this cd. It opens up with the memorable "nothing compares 2 U", and goes uphill from there. I fell in love with "Mandinka", "Troy" and "Fire on Babylon". Such power and emotion! And then there were the soft, touching songs - "Heroine" and "John i love you" are beautiful. Even "Don't Cry for me Argentina" seems heartfelt.

Forget about the stories you've heard. Okay, they're probably true, but that doesn't affect her music. Sinead has had so many experiences in her life that they are bound to rub off in her music - and sad as it may sound, that is to our benefit.

After listening to this cd a number of times, i'm after ordering her new one... so go out, buy it, and enjoy it.

26 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars So far, so good...just not the best, September 3, 2003

By 

C. Miller "Knitter and bookworm" (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: So Far: Best of Sinead O'Connor (Audio CD)

The title of this compilation is misleading, for it does not contain the best of Sinead O'Connor's work. I give it 4 stars because O'Connor deserves 4 stars, at least, not because the choice of songs on here was particularly inspired.

The album starts off like gangbusters, with seven solid tracks in a row. This includes the keening howl and sometimes unsettling intensity of "Troy" and "Mandinka" from "The Lion and the Cobra", the stunning debut album that introduced O'Connor to the world. The mesmerizing "Nothing Compares 2 U" of course makes it on here, as do "I Am Stretched On Your Grave," "The Emperor's New Clothes," and "The Last Day of Our Acquaintance," all from her second album "I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got," which showed more mature songwriting and vocal style.

The rest of the album, unfortunately, is hit or miss. Throwaway tracks like "Success Has Made a Failure of Our Home", "I Want Your (Hands on Me)" and the sweet but middling "John I Love You" made it on here in place of more engaging songs. Her guest vocals on Bomb the Bass's "Empire" is also, somewhat inexplicably, included. "Heroine," O'Connor's collaboration with The Edge of U2 fame is a nice, simple touch, but her cover of "Don't Cry For Me Argentina" seems unnecessary, especially when she has written far superior songs herself. Even the yearning "You Made Me the Thief of Your Heart" from the "In the Name of the Father" soundtrack sounds a bit turgid here. At least the defiant "Just Like U Said It Would Be," from O'Connor's first album, closes the record, perhaps a final "f you" to all those who criticized her for her outspoken behavior and slightly odd career choices.

For all its good tracks, there are some startling omissions. Notable among the absent are "Black Boys on Mopeds", "Famine", "This Is a Rebel Song" and "Thank You For Hearing Me," which is perhaps one of O'Connor's most frank and personal statements.

As a supplement to what this album does not provide, I would suggest the 2000 album "Sinead O'Connor" or "The Rest of the Best," which features all of these songs and more.