RECORD REVIEWS

Sinead O’Connor

Album: “I’m Not Bossy, I’m the Boss” (Nettwerk)

Grade: C

After a rough few years for Sinead O’Connor, as she dealt with a 16-day marriage and canceled a tour due to mental illness, it’s heartening to see her confident image on the cover of the new disc, “I’m Not Bossy, I’m the Boss.” She wears a black wig and sexy latex dress, hugging an electric guitar to her chest. The boss, indeed.

O’Connor, 47, seemed like a strong woman in control of her life and work in her younger years, even while singing about heartbreak or acting a little nutty. What’s striking about her new set of songs is how needy, even forlorn, she sounds.

She yearns openly for a strong man in the album opener and elsewhere; for a man to “take me, make a fool of me all night.” She dreams about another: “I’d give anything to be the one who kisses you.” She dubs herself “special forces,” called in “after divorces” due to her kissing ability, but warns a guy that she’s not the keeping kind. She sings about being foolishly seduced by a married man and bemoans that she looks like a wooden chair. She even writes of contemplating suicide.

Yikes! Only O’Connor truly knows where autobiography ends and art begins, but the material here could keep a psychiatrist at work for months.

The emotion overwhelms the music, where her once-distinctive sound is now mostly generic, though the album was produced by longtime collaborator and O’Connor’s first ex-husband, John Reynolds. The exciting exception is the crashing climax in the song “Harbour.”

Her love for music is evident, and she still has considerable talent. But O’Connor here sounds less like a boss and more like a broken woman.

— David Bauder, Associated Press

SPOON

Album: “They Want My Soul,” Spoon (Loma Vista/Republic)

Grade: A

The Austin, Texas-born band Spoon is out with its eighth album, “They Want My Soul.” It’s a lush jangle of guitars, smart lyrics and catchy refrains that continues to set the band apart from, well, other bands you’re not quite sure you’ve heard of.

Therein lives the mystery of Spoon. They’re just good enough to make a 20-year career out of music while producing albums and songs you’ve probably overlooked.

That may not last much longer thanks to a couple of standout tracks that are certain to be late-summer earworms once “They Want My Soul” migrates into frequent rotation.

“Do You” is the one song you must know about. It asks of the listener ““Do you want to get understood?/Do you want one thing or are you looking for sainthood?” It has a great pace and is delivered with matching emotion by the band’s electrifying lead singer Britt Daniel.

While “Do You” offers straight-ahead rock, “Outlier” has a more modern feel with its danceable backbeat and ghostly keyboard echoes.

Spoon can do a little bit of everything, and does so on “They Want My Soul.” To sound this fresh after two decades of work speaks to the band’s smartness and savvy.

Spoon is wearing its experience well these days.

— Ron Harris, Associated Press