Sinead The Theologist pleads the blood of Jesus and shakes her..

Sinead  O'Connor, the theologist 
(I just  had to use that word, as it seems to fit here.  One of my students used it in a  paper, and I didn't even know the word existed.  I just assumed he meant "theologian," but guessed at the wrong word)
 is at it again.

 Here's an excerpt of a USA Today story on her new album.  Three things stand out to me so far:

 1)Of course, the gutsy song where she (or actually the Holy Spirit, as narrator of the song) pleads the blood of Jesus over the church .  Dare you to check it out here.  You WILL have an opinion on it!

  2)Sinead is one of a  long (OK, short( line of artists (Elvis, Marvin Gaye, U2...
see this interview with Bono) who take the risk of speaking/singing honestly and without self-censoring on the sexuality/spirituality connection.  Sinead's last tine of the interview  (You WILL have an opinion on it!) is classic (and reminded me of this),  It also is actually a  shockingly-phrased, but self-effacing reference to celebrity..She is good at being honest. (see this), even about sexuality (see this)..

3)The line "She lets people in quickly, perhaps more readily than she should" is well-observed, and helps me as I post on the topic of self-disclosure (see posts on that topic by clicking that keyword l at bottom of this post.

To hear the celebrity media tell it, Sinead O'Connor is practically unhinged — a capricious, troubled woman who calls off her marriage after 16 days, one who puts out a plea for psychiatric help on Twitter saying, "I'm really unwell."




In conversation, though, the 45-year-old Irish singer comes across as forthright and engaging, by turns spiritually minded, bawdy and even a bit vulnerable. She lets people in quickly, perhaps more readily than she should.


Those qualities also are present on How About I Be Me (And You Be You), out Tuesday. It's also part of what's behind the title of the new album, one she initially intended to call Home.

"I've spent all my life as an artist being told what I should be and what I shouldn't be — basically, why don't you just be somebody else," says O'Connor, who had a No. 1 hit in 1990 with Nothing Compares 2 U but hasn't released a new album since 2007's Theology.

"I just got sick of it, because I was having so much fun doing what I was doing, and I was being me. … I was going to call it just How About I Be Me, but I thought that was selfish, and that I should express that I don't mind you being you, either."..

..."The reason I'm alive is that people gave me hope," she says. "Bob Dylan, in particular, you know what I mean?"

"Artists keep people alive. We're meant to give people hope. … Where you have war, you have a spiritual problem. So the spiritual leaders of the world are failing. I believe the job of artists is to be the emergency fire force. As well as shaking our (breasts)."

      -USA Today, full article here