She Who Dwells

Sinead O€Connor really knows how to end a career. True, she€s been trying to do it since the early €˜90s, through incendiary action (ripping up a photo of Pope John Paul II on Saturday Night Live) and regularly spaced announcements of her retirement. The release of She Who Dwells comes with the caveat that it is O€Connor€s last willful act and musical testament€"and, who knows, her third attempt to flee the music industry may stick. If so, it€s a shame because after nearly a decade of flailing musically, O€Connor rediscovered her true voice in 2002 with Sean-Nos Nua, an album of traditional Irish songs re-imagined in surprisingly fresh ways.

She Who Dwells (the full title is long enough to make Fiona Apple gasp for breath) is a two-CD set, but in typical O€Connor fashion it€s oddly framed. Disc one is a collection of 19 rarities and previously unreleased tracks split three very different ways. There are more traditional Irish tunes, her electronic collaborations with Massive Attack and Asian Dub Foundation, and a range of covers that includes songs written or made famous by Aretha Franklin, Gram Parsons, the B-52s, and Abba. (These latter tracks shouldn€t work, but for the best evidence they do, check out her almost Tex-Mex pop version of "Chiquitita.")

Disc two is a more traditional career-ending retrospective; it€s a 13-track recording taken from a late 2002 concert at Vicar Street Theatre in Dublin. About half the songs come from Sean-Nos Nua, with three songs each lifted off I Do Not Want What I Haven€t Got and Universal Mother,. O€Connor is backed by a great band that features Irish music stalwarts Donal Lunny and Sharon Shannon. As good as they are, it€s O€Connor€s voice that stuns throughout, whether singing the Irish blues of "I Am Stretched on Your Grave" or a version of "Nothing Compares to U" that contains both flute and a stately cello solo. One hopes this isn€t the last we hear from O€Connor, but even if it is she€s left us on a pure, high note. --Keith Moerer