In memory of Sinead the smart and badass singer-songwriter

“It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved Sinéad. Her family and friends are devastated and have asked for privacy at this very difficult time.” With these heartfelt words the family of Sinhaad O’Connor announced the death of their beloved on July 26th last year. Today we remember the Irish musician by publishing our review of her latest album, “I’m not bossy I’m the boss”released in August 2014.

Let’s start by saying that Sinead O’Connor’s new studio album, “I’m not bossy I’m the boss”, is the result of a change. Yet another one, to be interpreted and understood. First of all, the album comes about two years after the previous “How about I be me (And you be you)?”, the album with which Sinead returned to measure herself with a repertoire at her level and to put on again the role of intelligent and badass singer-songwriter with which she made herself known, at the beginning of her career, with the albums “The lion and the cobra” and “I do not want what I haven’t got”; the new album seems to take its cue – as far as content is concerned – from the latter. She does so starting from the first single, “Take me to church”, whose lyrics are a true declaration of intent: “I don’t want to love the way I loved before, I don’t want to write those songs anymore, I don’t want to sing the way I sang before. What would have happened if I had sung love songs before? I don’t want to sing those anymore, I don’t want to be that girl anymore”, the singer-songwriter sings in a mixture of anger and determination.

Here is a first change: the definitive break with the past.

The curtain goes down, the old Sinead says goodbye to the audience. And when the curtains go up again, there’s a new Sinead on stage. Completely different even in terms of her look, as evidenced by the album cover, in which O’Connor shows herself as we’ve never seen her before: dark and sinister while clutching a guitar tightly and sporting a black bob. The album was supposed to be called “The Vishnu room” but, at the last minute, the Irish singer-songwriter decided to opt for “I’m not bossy I’m the boss”, thus embracing Sheryl Sandberg’s new campaign against gender discrimination from childhood onwards in defense of women’s rights and dignity (here’s another change – even the title of the previous album, “How about I be me and you be you”, was changed at the last minute). The album contains twelve songs, all produced by John Reynolds (O’Connor’s first husband and already at her side, as a producer, in some of her previous studio works), with whom the Irish singer-songwriter confirms that she has found the “right path” after very difficult years, made of questionable deviations, too many impulsive actions and not very intelligent choices. The most important and significant change concerns the sound of these new songs: not the simple rock of her past productions, but a purer, sharper, more angular rock. And that, in some episodes of this “I’m not bossy I’m the boss”, even flows into heavy.

However, and it is worth saying, “I’m not bossy I’m the boss” is not an album made only of rock: listening to the album ranges from songs in which Sinead seems to draw inspiration from indie folk bands (this is the case of “Dense water deeper down”) to others in which she seems to instead propose the typical sound of the power trios in vogue in the 70s (that is to say that union between bass, guitar and drums that, in the album, we can hear in “Kisses like mine”); passing through a song in which the singer-songwriter tries her hand at afrobeat music (we are talking about “James Brown”, made in collaboration with Seun Kuti, son of the greatest exponent of the genre in question, Fela Kuti) and two pieces in which she instead tackles heavy rock (“The voice of my doctor” and “Harbour”, among the most successful of the entire album).

There is no shortage of songs characterised by a more calm tone, such as “How about I be me” and “Streetcars” (placed respectively at the beginning and end of the album), in which Sinead O’Connor’s voice is accompanied by a few instruments that remain in the background, in the background.

More than a rock album, then, this “I’m not bossy I’m the boss” is rather a kaleidoscope of musical intentions that sees rock as its main thread. It’s a record that, if at first it’s difficult to metabolize and understand, convinces with each new listen. It’s a work with which Sinead O’Connor seems to distance herself from popular taste more accentuated than in the past and hide in a small niche (“You know I love to make music/but my head got wrecked by the business”, she sings furiously in “8 good reasons”). Still a niche, it’s true, but a very respectable one.