Fridae

One fine day, Ms Scary was doing her best impression of her Singapore Airlines stewardess sashay down the aisles of HMV when she espied a particular arresting CD cover that made her do a double take.

Blinking her Mabelline mascara-ed eyes in disbelief, Ms Scary reached out for the CD and had to stifle a squeal of pleasurable surprise. Despite sporting an uncharacteristic smile, a dreadful looking fuschia outfit and an unfortunate pose that made her appear as if she was defecating amongst the bushes, it was unmistakable! Ms Scary's favorite provocateur, the divine Sinead O' Connor, is back!

The Irish banshee first seared into the public's consciousness with her shaven head in the late 80s and trailing teardrop in 1990's Nothing Compares To U music video. Since then, she has courted controversy after controversy by supporting the IRA, criticizing U2, tearing up Pope John Paul II's picture and refusing to perform if the Star Spangled Banner was played before any of her concerts. On top of that, she was a priest (now an archdeacon), a lesbian (or bisexual or whatever) and is now a double divorcee with two children.

Her first studio record since 2000's Faith and Courage, Sinead O'Connor's new album, Sean Nos Nua (Old Style But New), is a collection of 13 traditional Irish songs set to new arrangements with subtle nods to reggae, ambient and electronica. Produced by Ms O'Connor, Irish legend Donal Lunny and dub master Adrian Sherwood, the album also features some of Ireland's best musicians playing a whole range of folk instruments.

While fiddles and pipes are the prominent accompaniment on the album, the instrument that truly stands out has to be the singer-songwriter's extraordinary and incendiary voice. With a set of warm-blooded pipes like hers, Ms O'Connor could, in Ms Scary's opinion, sing directly from the phone directory and it would still make for compelling listening.

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With her austere new release, Ms O'Connor sustains the deep sense of Irish tradition that runs deep throughout the album and delivers her most intimate performance to date. The opening track Peggy Gordon is a scorching lesbian torch song of desire and unrequited love. Songs such as Molly Malone, a Dublin street ballad about the nineteenth century fishmonger and gentle lullabies such as Lord Franklin and The Moorlough Shore are destined to be Sinead classics.

Particularly outstanding is Paddy's Lament - a tale about the plight of a soldier who fled the "murdering cannons" of Ireland only to be conscripted by Abraham Lincoln in the War Between the States - which the alternative singer delivers with dignified gravity while her trademark ferocity bubbles and bristles beneath the apparent calm.

The ostensible centerpiece of the album has to be Lord Baker, a duet with Christy Moore which is based on the John Reilly song. However at a whooping 12 minutes, even the usually resilient Ms Scary found it a tad too tedious to endure and had to relegate it to the status of music most likely to be found at a funeral parlour.

Thankfully, there are other tracks in the album that are more varied and interesting such as I'll Tell Me Ma and The Parting Glance which resemble sing-a-longs at the local Irish fair, and Oro Se do Bheatha Bhaile and Baldin Fheillimi which are set to dub rhythms.

Overall, Sean Nos Nua with its restrained material and the singer's astonishingly beautiful voice may be regarded by detractors as Sinead O'Connor's attempt to make a grab for the Enya market. But to Ms Scary, the album is simply the singer's most rapturous album since 1990's I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got and the perfect accompaniment for one's moody and melancholy moments.

Now please excuse Ms Scary as she lights her aromatherapy candles, draws her homemade cloak (read: curtains) around herself and keens along to the album like a demented banshee.