I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got |
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Released: March 20, 1990 Peak: 16 US, 11 UK, 114 CN, 11 AU Sales (in millions): 2.0 US, 0.6 UK, 7.0 world (includes US and UK) Genre: alternative rock |
Tracks:Song Title (Writers) [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to charts.
All tracks are written by Sinéad O'Connor unless noted otherwise. Total Running Time: 51:09 |
Rating:4.395 out of 5.00 (average of 19 ratings)
Awards:(Click on award to learn more). |
Earlier YearsSinéad O’Connor was born in 1966 in Ireland. The alternative-rock singer/songwriter released her debut album, The Lion and the Cobra, in 1987. The album would achieve gold status in the United States and sell two-and-a-half million copes worldwide, promoted by the singles “Troy,” “Mandinka,” and “I Want Your Hands on Me.”O’Connor seemed on track to establish herself as a college-rock artist, but then life got in the way. “Her stormy relationship with drummer John Reynolds, who fathered O’Connor’s first child before the couple broke up,” AM “would inform the mood of her second full-length album.” TB The Second AlbumThat album, I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got, was an unexpected blockbuster, topping charts around the world and selling seven million copies worldwide. It was a “raw, compassionate, angry album” EW’93 which find O’Connor taking “on everything from lost love to racism in Britain, and her yowl will shred your speakers.” EW’93 The “music matched O’Connor’s unblinking stare on the cover.” EW’93The TitleThe album’s title came to O’Connor in a dream about her mother. A medium told O’Connor that her mother asked for forgiveness. Sinéad’s sister was not able to offer forgiveness to which their mother said, “I do not want what I haven’t got” because she realized she didn’t deserve their forgiveness. RH“Nothing Compares 2 U”The album owed much of its success to “the stunning Prince cover Nothing Compares 2 U.” AM The original was “an obscure breakup ballad” 500 that was just “filler on a flop album by the Family.” 500 “The stark cover…pulled listeners into the startling confessions and brutal catharsis of a complicated singer whose gorgeous voice conveys vulnerability and defiance in equal measures.” UT “It became O’Connor’s signature song.” 500She “changes the fundamental meaning of the song,” RH bringing her “fragility and…ferocity.” RH Her rendition became a reflection on her difficult relationship with an abusive mother who died in a car accident five years earlier. The raw emotion also came through vividly in the video. It lacked the quick-cut style of most videos, offering a close-up of Sinéad’s face instead. She’s wearing a black turtleneck and singing against a black background, “so it looks like her shaved head is floating in space.” SH A tear rolls down her cheek at one point.
The Album’s Tone“But even its remarkable intimacy wasn’t adequate preparation for the harrowing confessionals that composed the majority of the album.” AM “I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got lays the singer’s psyche startlingly and sometimes uncomfortably bare.” AM She “weaves a stubborn refusal to be defined by anyone but herself.” AM She “approaches each tune like she’s poised for a confrontation.” TM “The album is almost too personal and cathartic to draw the listener in close, since O’Connor projects such turmoil and offers such specific detail.” AM“Her confrontational openness makes it easy to overlook O’Connor’s musical versatility.” AM “The album plays like a tour de force in its demonstration of everything O’Connor can do.” AM “The album jumps from string-drenched balladry and traditional Celtic folk to slick pop,” TB “driving guitar rock, and protest folk.” AM “The common link throughout…[is] O’Connor’s impassioned vocal delivery” TB and “the frighteningly strong emotion O’Connor brings to bear on the material, while remaining sensitive to each piece’s individual demands.” AM The Album’s ImpactThis is “one of the most politically, socially, and spiritually charged breakup albums of the ’90s, if not the entire 20th century.” SL She “expanded the notion of what a female singer-songwriter could be.” TM She “came along at a time when demand for journal-scribbling Joni Mitchell intellectual types was waning.” TM O’Connor “went for something more visceral: flinty, quick-to-anger songs powered by outrage and indignation.” TM “Aside from being a brilliant album in its own right, I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got foreshadowed the rise of deeply introspective female singer/songwriters like Tori Amos and Sarah McLachlan, who were more traditionally feminine.” AMOther SongsHere are insights into other songs on the album beyond “Nothing Compares 2 U.”“Three Babies” “Feel So Different” “The Last Day of Our Acquaintance” “The Emperor’s New Clothes” and “Jump in the River” “I Am Stretched Out on Your Grave” “Black Boys on Mopeds” “I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got” Notes:A 2009 edition of the album added a second disc of bonus tracks including “Night Nurse,” “My Special Child,” “Silent Night,” “You Do Something to Me,” “Mind Games,” “What Do You Want,” and “The Value of Ignorance.” It also included live versions of “Troy” and “I Want Your Hands on Me” (both from The Lion and the Cobra) and a remix of “I Am Stretched Out on Your Grave.” |
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Related DMDB Pages:First posted 5/10/2008; last updated 12/2/2024. |