Oh, how soon they forget. O'Connor was already a major, Grammy-nominated "star" with a multi-platinum album ('Lion & Cobra') and a slew of international Modern Rock hit singles even before her freakishly mesmerizing crossover success with the Prince "cover" (Nothing Compares 2 U) in 1990.
Then, she protested institutional child-abuse in the RC Church in 1992 by "shredding" a little piece of paper on SNL, and two years later she gave "birth" (one would think literally) to this album, which cracked the Billboard Top 40 and made critics & fans churn with praise. The disc went-on to shift a couple of million units, and it's easy to see why O'Connor retained such a huge audience even after enormous controversy and boycott.
Like the gorgeous, ineffable Joni Mitchell, O'Connor steadfastly bucked every "standard" and did so brilliantly with this little "number." This album is the quintessential definition of an "album." 'Universal Mother' is a song-cycle of great pretension and bombast and harrowing vulnerability, but only a singer-songwriter like O'Connor (or perhaps the divine Mitchell, for that matter) could have pulled something like this "off."
Her opener, 'Fire on Babylon' is still one of the most scorchingly weird pieces of "protest-brilliance" ever committed to record. You've got loads of Sinead-ammunition with nuances of Peter Gabriel, some Kate Bush, some Joni, and SERIOUS funk-fusions that *nobody* was doing at the time. Forget boundaries; this chick was so outside-the-box that she created her own box. And it worked. The song still gives anyone with a soul the heebie-jeebies (or ought to). Then, O'Connor (after dropping the musical equivalent of a nuke), starts dusting and doing a 'Mother Teresa' amid the fallout with "John I Love U"--a waltz!!! Up next? Well, you have bared fangs about women's reproductive rights on 'Red Football' and the spookiest cover of Cobain's 'All Apologies' that is ever likely to be put down. 'Nuff said.
It only gets more chilling: stormy Irish seas and magically-transformed swan-people press against the brain with 'Perfect Indian,' wherein O'Connor sings of suicide and mythology with the kind of vocal clarity that could not only shatter a window-pane, but scour-it-clean beforehand.
A gut-wrenching cover of Ralph McTell's "Scorn Not His Simplicity" (stark piano-ode to a Downs-Syndrome Child's struggle to be loved) sets-up the blood-curdlingly Gothic 'All Babies' and then segues toward one of the most utterly original, brilliant, hair-raisingly rendered Irish "tradtionals" in history...only it wasn't "traditional" (O'Connor wrote & performed it for the album). Go figger.
A greasy, drop-dead sincere "rap" about the real origin of the Irish Potato Famine comes next (with the recurrent theme of nation-as-mother, mother-as-mother, Reason-as-mother) and then the elegiac hip-hop of 'Thank You 4 Hearing Me'--a soaring hymn loaded with Tim Simenon's ultra-funk that became a massive hit for Sinead in Europe, after USA radio had long refused to play her singles.
The whole thing is an opera, and O'Connor (being one of the true few who really deserves the legit title of "diva") constructs this record as a total drama from which she deftly blasts, bickers, belts, brays, bleats...and then caresses, careens, cuddles, and croons a spellbinding tale of "motherhood" is bracing, to say the least.
It's also probably the best record you forgot to buy, from the '90s.
The fact that it sold so well, two years after O'Connor had chucked-up her mainstream superstardom, is a testament to how extremely good was this disc. It does, indeed, remind me of some of Joni Mitchell's opuses (and some BIG time Nina Simone, honey!)...wherein O'Connor was blithely not afraid to throw the curviest of balls and make it all astonishingly SUPREME, in the end.
This is one of those records. The amazing thing about O'Connor is that she went-on to "rule" according to her own terms, with albums like this...just outside the spotlight, but big-selling and earth-shattering. Listen to this--start-to-finish--and see if you don't get the proverbial goosebumps. A classic for its daring fusion & experimentalism alone, and no mistake.
A Desert Island disc for the "Voice" and the passion, as usual.
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Track Listings
| 1 | Germaine - Sinead O'connor |
| 2 | Fire on Babylon - Sinead O'connor |
| 3 | John, I Love You - Sinead O'connor |
| 4 | My Darling Child |
| 5 | Am I a Human? |
| 6 | Red Football |
| 7 | All Apologies |
| 8 | A Perfect Indian |
| 9 | Scorn Not His Simplicity |
| 10 | All Babies |
| 11 | In This Heart |
| 12 | Tiny Grief Song |
| 13 | Famine |
| 14 | Thank You for Hearing Me |
Editorial Reviews
NEW Combo BLUWAVS CD and FLAC FILE
Product details
- Is Discontinued By Manufacturer : No
- Language : English
- Product Dimensions : 5.35 x 0.39 x 4.88 inches; 3.2 Ounces
- Manufacturer : Chrysalis / EMI Records
- Item model number : 7243 8 30549 2 3
- Date First Available : September 13, 1994
- Label : Chrysalis / EMI Records
- ASIN : B000003JCR
- Number of discs : 1
- Best Sellers Rank: #38,041 in CDs & Vinyl (See Top 100 in CDs & Vinyl)
- #954 in Adult Alternative (CDs & Vinyl)
- #1,275 in Pop Singer-Songwriters
- #1,853 in Folk (CDs & Vinyl)
- Customer Reviews:
Customer reviews
4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
127 global ratings
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Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
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Reviewed in the United States on October 6, 2007
Reviewed in the United States on October 17, 2020
One of Sinead’s top albums. I bought it for the cover of “All the Lonely People”...but that isn’t even the best track!
Reviewed in the United States on May 5, 2014
If you are a Sinead O' Connor fan, then you will love this CD. I only gave it one listen, but really liked her 'story'. Some songs are really soft, (in which you can hear every syllable), and some are loud, and really shows her anger. She is apologetic in one song,(No Apologies), and is angry in another song, (Fire on Babylon). She really shows the range of emotions on this CD.
Reviewed in the United States on January 19, 2018
new cd but scratched on the back and front printing was smudged.
Reviewed in the United States on September 11, 2017
I like most of this.
Reviewed in the United States on November 3, 2013
i think this is one of the best recordings ever made. it's so beautiful . . . poignant. i'm not much of a fan of o'connor personally, but i do appreciate her music. i listen to this often.
Reviewed in the United States on July 29, 2016
That she is, a universal mother. It takes a village to raise a child and Sinead has helped achieve this through her music.
Reviewed in the United States on July 24, 2019
Item as described
Top reviews from other countries
C Palma
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great album
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 21, 2020
Good album and service.
Decipher Angst Enami
5.0 out of 5 stars
"Sinéad O'Connor Sublime."
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 30, 2020
"I Love The Album. More Than Satisfied."
Hubert Penet
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent !
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 26, 2019
Excellent !
L.J.Keilty
3.0 out of 5 stars
Sinead O'Connor
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 15, 2017
Passable
chris Randall
5.0 out of 5 stars
Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 16, 2016
Good voice
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