 Sinead O'Connor
Theology
Folk-Pop
by Christa Banister | posted 1/01/2007
 1 of 2
"I couldn't thank U in ten thousand years/If I had cried ten thousand rivers of tears/Ah, but U know the soul and U know what makes it gold/U who give life through blood"—from "Something Beautiful"
While it may not be as initially shocking as, say, Bob Dylan's brief foray into making gospel albums, some are still going to be surprised to learn that Sinead O'Connor is following suit with her album Theology.
This is, after all, the same woman who infamously tore up the picture of the Pope on Saturday Night Live, was excommunicated after her being "ordained" as a Catholic priest, and at one time, announced she was a lesbian (she recanted shortly after). And if that wasn't enough to solidify her "rebel" status, she once refused to have "The Star Spangled Banner" played before her show, and has been sporting a shaved head long before Britney made the news after she buzzed her locks.
After a self-imposed sabbatical from the pop scene—she didn't pick up a guitar or even sing for several years—the mother of four insisted on getting her priorities back in order. As she tried to figure out her place in both life and music, she wrote a prayer to God asking to sort things out. O'Connor ended up titling it "Something Beautiful," and it became the first song on Theology, a double-disc project that features the same songs twice—one disc with stripped down acoustic arrangements recorded in Dublin, the other more produced pop recorded in London. In addition to original songs, the album also includes covers of Curtis Mayfield's "We the People Who Are Darker Than Blue" and "I Don't Know How to Love Him" from the musical Jesus Christ Superstar.
Based on the book of Jeremiah, O'Connor says "Something Beautiful" was very personal. "I spent a few years denying my desire to be a singer because I felt like I didn't belong in the rock and pop world," O'Connor says on her official website. "I really had convinced myself I would get a job and not bother with music any more because I was such a square peg in a round hole. After a couple of years, though, I began to want to approach music again and asked myself how I could be protected from the things I found hard to cope with in the entertainment industry."
Praise-oriented lyrics like "I wanna make something beautiful/For you and from you/To show you I adore you" seem to reflect O'Connor's growing desire to connect more deeply with God. A couple of verses later, in the excerpt above, she references thankfulness for the grace of Christ's sacrifice.
While her spiritual inspiration and intentions are clear in songs like "Something Beautiful," O'Connor is quick to clarify on her website that the songs on Theologyaren't meant to have a specific message for the masses. "Theologyis an attempt to create a place of peace in a time of war," she says. "It is my own personal response to what … is affecting everyone around the world since and including September 11. I want to be very clear—there is no message. No preaching. Nothing deep and meaningful the artist wants to say, nothing trouble making. I simply wanted to make a beautiful thing out of something beautiful, which inspires me."
Despite her desire not to push an intentionally spiritual message, "33" comes directly from , and "Dark I Am Yet Lovely" is clearly inspired by . The folksy strains of "Whomsoever Dwells" are taken from O'Connor's favorite Psalm (Psalm 91), a plainspoken prayer for God's protection. In "Watcher of Men," she uses the words of Job as a backdrop to talk about how God understands the plans he has for our life far better than we do.
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