Concluding my list of best debut albums (with quite a few caveats)…
Sinéad O’Connor – The Lion and the Cobra (1987)
I almost didn’t include today’s album because I thought 1990’s I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got was likely my favorite Sinéad O’Connor album. Or if not that one, probably 2000’s Faith and Courage.
Those are both great albums. But when I re-listened to The Lion and the Cobra, O’Connor’s bracing debut, I decided that yeah, this is definitely the one.
If you thought yesterday’s Sinead O’Connor performance was fierce, you ain’t seen nothing yet.
This performance of ‘Troy,’ also from 1988, shows O’Connor at her most raw. ‘Troy’ is a fabulous, biting broken heart song that feels more like a session in the confessional. The album performance is emotionally epic but it’s outdone by the naked ferocity on display at the Pinkpop festival in this clip.
🎵 The Sinead O’Connor Deep Dive 🎵
→ My exploration of Sinead O’Connor’s catalog
Like a lot of people, my first exposure to Sinead O’Connor was through her breakthrough single ‘Nothing Compares 2 U,’ and following that through the album that contained it, I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got.
The woman performing that batch of songs was defiant, to a degree, but mostly delicate. She had an angelic voice and the face of an angel to match.
