Sinead O’Connor – Goodnight, Thank You, You’ve Been
A Good Audience (Concert film)
Picture:
B- Sound: B Extras: B Concert: B
It is a
shame that Sinead O’Connor self-destructed commercially soon after her success,
with strange abuse allegations against Prince, who had written her biggest hit:
Nothing Compares 2 U. He was still Prince then, before that name
game he had to go through against Warner Records. Of course, she sang a song a Capella and
ripped up a picture of Pope John Paul II when the Irish terrorist situation was
much hotter.
Her move
to being explicit about her faith has not reversed this, and her attempts to
debate issues have not reversed her drop in popularity and she has excised
herself back to Ireland for the most part. Throw in her debate about who was paying of
the plane ticket with then-Capitalist “darling” M.C. Hammer (aka Hammer,) a tab
bankruptcy reportedly stopped him from making good on, and you can see how
O’Connor went all the way into the deep hell of Pop trivialization.
Her new
concert DVD Goodnight, Thank You, You’ve
Been A Good Audience (2003) shows a continued move to more traditional
music, leaving behind most of her Pop materials, but still retaining some of
her hits. The big surprise for non-fans
is that she still has substance and talent worth seeing in action. Even if you do not agree with her, the depth
of her vocal reach and its intent are undeniable and far better than the
shallow, pointless female vocal garbage the major labels have been pushing on
us of late. She is also a bit more
pointed and rich than her “Lillith” competition.
The song
list includes:
1) Molly Malone
2) Oro Se do Bneatna Bnade
3) The Singing Bird
4) My Laoan Love
5) I Am Stretched on Your Grave
6) Nothing Compares 2 U
7) John I Love You
8) The Moorlough Song
9) You Made Me The Thief of Your Heart
10) Paddy’s Lament
11) Thank You for Hearing Me
12) Fire on Babylon
13) The Last Day of Our
Acquaintance
The
anamorphically enhanced 16 X 9 (1.78 X 1) image is not quite as good as it
ought to be for the taping of a recent concert, with a slight softness
throughout. There is some haziness and the
colors shift slightly at times, especially under the circumstances of the
darkness of the scene of the concert.
The sound fares a bit better, with the 5.1 mix not up to what it could
have been, but the DTS mix is still slightly better than the Dolby one, if not
by as much as usual. The Dolby 2.0
Stereo is the weakest, but the 5.1 option should mix down better on PC/DVD-ROM
set-ups.
Extras
include six video clips which are often just simple tapings, a long documentary
on the making of her new album Sean-Nos
Nua and take the time to delve into issues of the singer at hand. This all runs longer than it sounds and can
compete with the concert content easily.
O’Connor
wins points for conviction, but it also is worth noting that some of what she
is dealing with is so deeply ethnic, it is bound to go over many people’s
heads. Just the same, she is an artistic
success on some level and has achieved some hard-won credibility that cannot be
taken away from her. It may not be a DVD
for everyone, but those open to O’Connor’s work will be pretty happy with this
disc.
- Nicholas Sheffo
