I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got

Dramatic songs for dramatic times. Didn't overly connect with me, but certainly an interesting listen.

I love Sinèad but this in’t her best work. But it does have that song.

I love her Debut the Lion and The Cobra compared to it this is pretty tame.

Best song apart from you know what. Is Black Boys On Mopeds. I don’t like it when people say “I was lucky enough to see …” when they’ve chosen to see that gig, given up their time to travel to it and spend their money that they presumably worked hard for (well someone did!). But I was lucky enough to see what turned out to be Sinéad’s last gig in the British Isles - the Villa Marina Douglas Isle of Man. It was fantastic as were the other times I saw her.

Anyway I was unlucky enough to have the local Minister of Business next to me and the Treasury minister in front of me. Probably a freebie. They kept leaning over to talk to each other and “network”. They made sure they were applauding wildly whenever she called for “peace” or “compassion”. But during Black Boys on Mopeds, a song in part about the hypocrisy of politicians, they shut the fuck up.

She was a fansdtc singer, a brave compelling live performer and I urge you to check out her work beyond this lp.

I’m at a 10. That one got me really fucking good, man.

I have sat here for 10 minutes pondering this album & how potently Sinead O’Connor lets her emotions pour out of her, and it has left me with one question that I think this album tries to answer – What does an angel sound like when it’s been abandoned by God? I think Sinead O’Connor is a woman pleading for answers throughout this album, and while I’m not sure if she ever finds them, it almost feels like a privilege to hear someone else ask the many angry questions that I have never been able to put so forcefully into words. Sure, her struggles are related to familial & romantic relationships, many of which I can relate to, but at their core, they express a distrust with life itself & the inability to reckon with struggle in a way that doesn’t fundamentally change you as a person. I do not know what an angel sounds like when it's been abandoned by God, but I know that Sinead O'Connor has come as close as anything I've ever heard with this album.

That’s genuinely all I can type. I think it’s a deeply rewarding experience if you just listen to her, especially with headphones in. I found myself just closing my eyes often throughout this album, just to lock in on her even more. At worst, there’s some longer outros, but they barely matter in the big picture. This is an album you need to hear before you die. It’s that potent. It’s a 10. It might be higher.

Although Sinead O'Connor was done dirty by the media, if I'm completely honest, there is a part of me that's always thought that if she hadn't been such a controversial and charismatic figure, she might have been put in the one-hit wonder file. Anyway, it turns out I've been doing her dirty too, as I liked this album a lot and there's definitely more to it than Nothing Compares 2 U.

Sinead 's voice is incredible throughout, but the songs are a bit of a mix. Whilst nothing Compares 2 U is (of course) incredible, some of the other tunes are are so-so, with lyrics are a bit too on the nose. I Am Stretched on Your Grave was a definite highlight.

Beautiful, clear, haunting... can't deny this vocal

Watching All The Usual Suspects™ getting foamed up over her SNL appearance was a formative memory of my youth.

"Remember what I told you. If they hated me they will hate you"

RIP Sinead, you were more punk rock than any punk rocker.

Aside from Nothing Compares 2U (which I heard way too many times on the 6th form college jukebox in the 90s) .. nothing stood out. It was fine but I thought I’d enjoy it more.

I quite liked I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got. With this album, i mainly got two different styles of music on offer here. Those styles being either a somewhat 80s pop rock sounding style and a more gospel style with the vocals and some violins as well. I will say that i thought both styles did their job pretty well. Most of the pop rock stuff was pretty catchy especially with the bass and the good rhythms as well and while i didn't like the other style as much, it still brought a decent bit of variety to keep this album from getting too stale. I honestly can't really say much outside of that so all i'll say is that it's a pretty solid album.
Best Song: Jump in the River
Worst Song: I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got

I liked the variety of style and production, didn't feel like I knew what was coming next.

Some uncomfortable moments in there (I guess purposefully) and also what was going on with the volumes of the tracks?

This album is primarily a soft, sparsely arranged pop album. It features some more upbeat tracks with noticeable drum beats and some soft tracks that serve primarily as vocal showcases. The singing is excellent, and the backing tracks are tasteful and well placed. However, some production is fairly dated. The lyrics are well written, but not quite excellent. While the lyricism and vocals are high points, the album's true strength is in its spare, down-to-earth nature. It prefers introspective statements to the brash bombast common in pop, allowing the songs to shine for their high quality writing.

This is the first time I have ever listened to I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got by Sinead O'Connor, I have always wanted to give this a listen. This album is beautiful. There is so much variety on it, powerful songs and lyrics of great meaning. I really enjoyed the listen and will be playing this again.

Favourite track: Nothing comapres to you is a classic song and so emotional when watched with the video. Feel so different was also a great song. There are a good 5 on the album you could pick as a favourite.
Least favourite track: Everything on the album is great.
Album artwork: Classic album cover, raw with emotion.

Я люблю голос Шинейд О'Коннор і дуже поважаю її. А також неодноразово намагався слухати альбомно і ніколи мені не заходило чомусь. Ще раз ось спробував послухати цю класику, враження ті самі. Просто типу окей, є головний її хіт (краще ніж оригінал), є гарні пісні, є нудні.

Really liked this, some very high highs and fairly pleasant/consistent throughout. The structure/pacing of it was a bit odd on first listen and I don't feel the need to revisit right now, so going with a strong 3 for now.

Nothing about this is particularly impressive? It's just a lot, but not a lot of anything.

Nothing Compares 2 U was the song that first brought Sinead O'Connor to my attention. I listened to it a lot back then. I listened to the rest of the album once, but then forgot about it. Sinead has a great voice. The album is fantastic. 5/5

More of a pop bent than I expected but pretty good.

En 1990, alors que les années 80 exhalaient leur dernier souffle parfumé à la laque, une Irlandaise au crâne rasé et au regard de pythie est venue mettre un grand coup de pied dans la fourmilière pop. "I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got" n'est pas qu'une collection de chansons, c'est une autopsie à cœur ouvert, un acte de foi et de défiance balancé à la gueule du monde.

Alors oui, parlons-en tout de suite, évacuons le mammouth au milieu du couloir : "Nothing Compares 2 U". Le tube. L'hymne planétaire qui a fait pleurer dans les chaumières et a transformé Sinéad O'Connor en superstar mondiale, presque malgré elle. On l'a tous entendue jusqu'à la nausée, mais refais l'exercice : isole-toi, mets un casque et revisionne le clip... ce plan fixe, ce visage. Et cette fameuse larme qui coule. Ce n'est pas du cinéma, ce n'est pas d'la com', c'est une larme pour sa mère, décédée quelques années plus tôt. Et d'un coup, la sublime chanson de Prince se charge d'un poids de deuil et d'une vérité qui la transcendent. Ce n'est plus une chanson de rupture, c'est un cri primal de perte. C'est probablement une des performances vocales et émotionnelles les plus pures jamais capturées sur bande.

Mais réduire ce disque à ce seul titre serait une insulte, une hérésie car cet album est d'une richesse et d'une complexité folles. La preuve ? Le morceau qui suit "Nothing Compares 2 U" est "I Am Stretched On Your Grave". Un putain de poème irlandais du XVIIe siècle posé sur un sample de James Brown. Une fusion hallucinante de tradition celtique et de breakbeat hip-hop. En 1990, personne ne faisait ça. C'était d'une audace et d'une modernité qui laissent encore pantois aujourd'hui. Elle ne se contentait pas de chanter, elle défonçait les chapelles, elle créait des ponts entre les siècles et les continents.

Et l'album est un champ de mines émotionnel. "The Emperor's New Clothes" est un single pop-rock parfait, une charge féroce contre l'hypocrisie, avec une rage qui annonce déjà le rock alternatif de la décennie à venir. Et que dire de "The Last Day of Our Acquaintance" ? Sans doute le titre de rupture le plus violent et libérateur jamais enregistré. La chanson monte en puissance, la guitare se fait de plus en plus stridente, et la voix de Sinéad passe du murmure résigné au hurlement de pure rage cathartique. C'est le son d'une chaîne qui se brise. Ça te prend aux tripes, ça t'éviscère.

Ce qui rend ce disque si essentiel, si intemporel, c'est son honnêteté brutale. Il n'y a pas un gramme de gras, pas une once de calcul, c'est tout simplement l'œuvre d'une artiste qui ne sait pas tricher. Elle y parle de ses fausses couches ("Three Babies"), de sa foi complexe et tourmentée, de sa relation conflictuelle avec la célébrité et l'autorité. C'est cette vulnérabilité totale, cette mise à nu sans filet, cette intégrité qui l'a poussée, plus tard, à déchirer une photo du pape à la télévision, signant son arrêt de mort commercial aux États-Unis. Elle ne jouait pas un jeu, elle était juste incapable de se taire et cet album en est le manifeste.

C'est un disque qui refuse le compromis. Il est à la fois magnifique et dérangeant, doux et incroyablement violent. C'est une œuvre complète, un voyage intérieur qui ne laisse personne indemne.

C'est un excellent album "humain" qui vous prend aux tripes. C'est un chef-d'œuvre incandescent, un bloc de vérité pure. Un 5/5 indiscutable, qui résonne encore avec une force inouïe plus de trente ans après. Un disque pour ceux qui savent que la beauté se trouve souvent au bord du précipice.

Weird album for me. Not a huge fan of a few songs, and overall find it to be stylistically messy. I enjoy/value musical diversity within records, but this one doesn’t feel particularly coherent to me. Still, some tracks are far too good for me to ignore: “The Emperor’s New Clothes” is pure 90’s goodness, “Black Boys on Mopeds” is an absolute triumph of political folk, and although I can’t say I’ve ever considered my opinion on it despite hearing it a thousand times through my life, “Nothing Compares 2 U” is clearly fucking great and sounds excellent in context of the record. I was wavering back and forth between 3 and 3.5, but I’ll stick with a feathery 3.5 for now.

3.5/5

This was haunting back in 1990, and doubly so now, it has a few upbeat songs like "The Emperor's New Clothes" but it's mostly a maudlin dirgey affair, and extremely moving.