Sinead O’Connor

Rating: NNNNN

Sin&eacutead O’Connor’s fame stemmed from the fact that she was a killer cover artist. I mean, Prince’s Nothing Compares 2 U was the breakthrough that shot the doe-eyed songstress to Pope-ragging, lesbian priestess heights. So while it’s not a stretch for her to follow up an album of trad Irish folk covers with another disc of other people’s work, the “WTF?” factor comes from her choice to cover classic reggae tunes. Here’s the shocker: Throw Down Your Arms is actually really good. That’s due in part to O’Connor’s decision to work with masters Sly and Robbie at Kingston’s Tuff Gong Studio. They deliver the perfect balance of skanky brass, spliff-soaked organ and heady, dubby bass lines. O’Connor’s passionate vocal interpretations of the tunes – particularly two Lee Perry tracks, the fiery Vampire and the lover’s rockin’ Curly Locks – are wholly believable, and reimagine Rasta orthodoxy in a humanist, anti-misogynist framework.