- Purchase a product from the Music Store sold by Amazon.co.uk and receive £1 to use on an album download in our MP3 Store. Here's how (terms and conditions apply)
Amazon.co.uk allows you to pay for your items in your local currency. Restrictions apply. Learn More. |
Special Offers and Product Promotions
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
Listen to Samples and Buy MP3s
Songs from this album are available to purchase as MP3s. Click on "Buy MP3" or
view the MP3 Album.
|
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Released two years after she tore up a picture of the Pope on prime-time US television, this is O'Connor's fourth and most fully-realised album. Intensely spiritual, it burns with anger, passion and a fragile beauty. Opening with a call to arms by feminist writer Germaine Greer, the album then moves into the sultry groove of "Fire On Babylon", O'Connor's chilling song about her experience of child abuse. In the tradition of rap music as education, she mixes Celtic folk with hip-hop beats on the track "Famine", a tough-talking tribute to Irish history complete with samples from Miles Davis and Fiddler On The Roof; while pared-down ballads such as "John I Love You" and "Thank You For Hearing Me" are soaring yet simple hymns to the rejuvenating power of love. She even does an intimate version of Nirvana's song "All Apologies". More poised and reflective than previous albums, Universal Mother shows vision and musical maturity. As O'Connor suggests in the sleeve notes, it is heard best "on headphones (and) ... in sequence, rather than as single tracks." --Lucy O'Brien
Product Description
EX/EX
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great forgotten album of the Nineties,
By A Customer
This review is from: Universal Mother (Audio CD)
This is a truly excellent piece of work, one of the great but shamefully ignored albums of the Nineties. The myth prevails today that Sinead O'Connor was a one hit, cover-version wonder, but this largely self-penned collection shows how wrong that perception is. OK, so Famine is a little embarrassing, and the Am I Human interlude from her son upsets the flow, but most of the rest is magnificent - emotionally enriching, simply melodic tracks, beautifully sung. The acapella In This Heart, in particular, was the best thing ever done on Jools Holland's show and it's equally stunning here.Buy this album now - it's a rare gem.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
puzzling, morose, emotional; sublime,
By jpmacd@aol.com (Fort William) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Universal Mother (Audio CD)
This collection of songs illustrates, fully, O' Connor's talents as an artist but also her frailties, her humanity, laid bare through her music. I initially read a review of this album, where the reviewer "astutely" desribed how Sinead was trying to gain pity for herself through the writing of songs that revelled in the pain, sorrow and torment of motherhood. However, such facile commentary deserves scant attention. This is an album which, true to all of Sinead's work,is illuminated by the passion, self-expression and turbulence, which epitomises her art, whether this is manifest through powerful lyrics or music that ranges from delectable to positively turbulent. What inspired such an album? that's what I'd love to know. It bristles with the angst that Sinead's work is known for and also effortlessly encompasses the most angelic songs, such as "A perfect Indian" and "Scorn not his Simplicity"; the latter being one of the most achingly moving compositions that I have recently heard. Combine this with the songs "Red Football" and "Fire On Babylon" and you have an album that both shrieks and whispers, in a way that mesmerises. Why is Sinead victimised in the musical press? I often wonder if it is musically based. My reading of one review of UNIVERSAL MOTHER is what inspired my own appraisal of this album. But my appraisal is one that is based upon the musical content and artistic expression of an incredibly talented artist;not some pre-assumed, glib opinion of the artist's lifestyle and personal opinions. Sinead's lifestyle is her own. Her music is ours. Be thankful for that. UNIVERSAL MOTHER is one of the best albums I have and, being a devoted fan of such illustrious artists as NIRVANA, BEASTIE BOYS, LOUIS ARMSTRONG and JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH, one might feasibly ask, Can Sinead enter this select hall of fame? My response is; Most certainly. Buy the album and discover for yourself
5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Much-underrated '94 album,
By
This review is from: Universal Mother (Audio CD)
Universal Mother is Sinead O'Connor's Berlin,Heartbreaker,The Holy Bible,Third/Sister Lovers,Pink Moon,Time Out Of Mind & In Utero all at once-it is both harrowing and brilliant.Indeed,she covers In Utero's All Apologies in her own idiosyncratic way here.This album is one of the nineties' lost albums,but it's time will come.This is like a less musically brutal version of PJ Harvey's Rid Of Me,with the same mixture of bruised introspection and pure anger.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews |
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Listmania!
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
