Sinéad O'Connor: The Lion & The Cobra [CHRYSALIS]

Why you'll love it

This UK-pressed LP restores the original Ensign/Chrysalis album, catalogue CHEN 7. Slant ranked it No. 46 among the best albums of the 1980s, and Pitchfork placed it at No. 44 on its own list of the decade's best.

This edition

• Pressed in the UK
• Stereo mix

About the album

Sinéad O'Connor made her debut while heavily pregnant with her first child, and the record has the force of somebody with no time to waste. She wrote every song, played electric guitar, produced it herself with Kevin Moloney, and took the title from Psalm 91. Ensign and Chrysalis issued it in October 1987.

"Jackie" opens the album in a haunted near-whisper before it erupts, "Troy" is a slow-building epic, and "Mandinka" is a punchy, wiry pop single that reached No. 17 in the UK and No. 6 in Ireland. Enya recites Psalm 91 in Irish at the start of "Never Get Old," "Drink Before the War" carries real gravity, and "I Want Your (Hands on Me)" later turned up in A Nightmare on Elm Street 4. Moloney's production leaves plenty of space around her voice, so every whisper and every yelp lands.

Sounds gave it five stars and Record Mirror called it a staggeringly strange and enticing LP. Kate Garner shot the cover, and North America got a softer pose than Europe, presumably on the theory that the music would do the shouting.

Also at Kops: more Sinéad O'Connor on vinyl · browse Alternative

Tracklist

Listen

On Ensign / Chrysalis (cat# CHEN 7), a reissue of the 1987 album.