release date: Jun. 13, 2000
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,65]
producer: various
label: Atlantic - nationality: Ireland
Track highlights: 1. "The Healing Room" - 2. "No Man's Woman" - 3. "Jealous" - "Dancing Lessons" - 6. " 'Til I Whisper You Something" - 7. "Hold Back the Night" - 9. "The State I'm In" - 10. "The Lamb's Book of Life" - 11. "If U Ever" - 12. "Emma's Song"
5th full-length studio album by Sinéad O'Connor following six years after Universal Mother (Sep. 1994), and three years after the 6-track Gospel Oak ep (Jun. 1997). The album is her only to be released on Atlantic after ending a long series of album with Ensign / Chrysalis. The production of the album has been supervised ('coordinated') by John Reynolds, and the single tracks have a number of familiar producer names involved. Overall the idea and execution with several producers works really fine. Reynolds, having himself been producer on most other of O'Connor's releases has made sure the album comes out as something that basically challenges O'Connor's first two major albums - as the first and only in a long career. The album counts thirteen tracks of which Dave Stewart is credited as producer on four, Adrian Sherwood and Skip McDonald on four, Anne Preven and Scott Cutler on two, and then Jerry "Wonder" Duplessis & Wyclef Jean, Kevin "She'kspere" Briggs, and Brian Eno are all credited as producers on one track each. Overall, there's much reggae inspiration on this but there's also electronic bits and uptempo rock tunes making it a most varied release and overall it actually works fine as a quite coherent release.
I don't know anything about the causes but this one really comes close to what sounds like O'Connor's closest effort to make a follow-up to her great 1990 album. Given much of the personal struggles she experienced at the time of these recordings - giving birth to her second child, while almost simultaneously ending a relationship, which continued as a custody battle, and she has spoken frankly about herself attempted suicide in '99. This alone should make this album an impossible idea - and that's far from major concerns in her life during this periode. Alledgedly, O'Connor became the first priestess of the Latin Tridentine Church, a dissident Catholic group led by a self-styled Roman Catholic bishop and O'Connor took the name of Mother Bernadette Marie. In Apr. 2000, she was given the title as 'Archdeacon' for her work with Dublin’s homeless. Needless say, I think it would require united forces to make this kind of a release at a point like this in any artist's life. It seems there's a strong friendship and / or other united forces, who have made this album come together and to materialise this succesful. 'Cause it literally sounds like there's much of the same energy and vitality present on this one when comparing with her 1990 album, and then this is also crammed with really fine songs. Even looking at the inlay photos, O'Connor looks quite happy and laidback, as if in a good place in life. Of course images don't tell the truth - and in this case, there's definitely more at stake, but musically, everything goes really well hand in hand here. Thematically, it's her natural playground with personal stories, songs about love and motherhood, and more religious-orientated ones.
Generally, the album fared well but was also granted with mixed reviews. I regret not to have paid attention to it when it came out. Years before, I had given up on Sinéad and only got to know of this a near decade later and actually before listening to Universal Mother.
Faith and Courage is no less than O'Connor's third best album in all of her discography, which means it's really one to know of. Highly recommended.
[ allmusic.com 3 / 5, 👎NME 2,5 / 5, 👍Rolling Stone 3,5 / 5, Slant 4,5 / 5 stars ]
