3.8 + So many thoughts and feelings surrounding Sinéad O'Connor. When she first busted onto my radar in 1989, I was utterly fascinated by her beautiful baby face and her rebellious spirit. It seems banal to comment on her bald head but at the time there were absolutely ZERO other female entertainers who had the balls to sport that look. Her baldness made her the butt of countless cheap jokes on American television. Regardless, her two hit videos were on heavy rotation on MTV. \"Nothing Compares...\" is a lush, gorgeous, expansive arrangement that gives Sinéad's voice the backdrop to flutter and soar. The single tear she sheds in the video, with the tight camera shot on her angelic face - for ten year old me, it felt sublime. \"Emperor's New Clothes\" still reads as her mission statement that in retrospect serves as a general narrative to her life as an artists and public figure: \"Whatever it may bring, I will live by own policies, I will sleep with a clear conscience, I will sleep in peace.\" That uncompromising stance has come up again and again - the tearing of the pope's picture on SNL, her born-again Christian phase, coming out as gay, converting to Islam... - she's made choices that have cast her negatively in the limelight but she's stood by what she believes often risking her own image and mental health. Sometimes I wish she were better able to play nice. But surely she'd end up another throwaway whatever-happened-to artist - more so than she is currently. Now, putting aside her status as pop music's Contrarian, we're left with her music. Unfortunately, for me, the quality and luster in these tracks remains inconsistent and sometimes lacking. Setting aside \"Nothing Compares...\", which she made her own heartbreak song for the ages, we're left with songs that might be generously described as \"quirky\" and \"unique.\" Frankly, the arrangements on some of these songs is confusing (\"I Am Stretched On Your Grave\") and the lyrics are sometimes cringe-y in their directness (\"Black Boys on Mopeds\" and \"Three Babies\"). To be sure, there are some solid moments (\"You Cause as Much Sorrow\", \"Jump in the River\"). I've tried over the years to LOVE this album, which is probably her best, because I've often loved Sinead O'Connor's brave, authentic, rebellious persona. But try as I might, I still only like it.