Sinéad O’Connor’s extraordinary debut The Lion and the Cobra arrived in 1987 and immediately announced an artist who could not be filed neatly, softened down or ignored.
Born in Dublin in 1966, O’Connor was discovered while singing wedding covers in the city, before co-writing with U2 protégés In Tua Nua and eventually relocating to London to pursue music properly. By the time The Lion and the Cobra landed, her voice already sounded fully formed: fierce, wounded, fearless and capable of moving from a whisper to a detonation in the same breath.
The album pulls together post-punk, art-pop, Celtic atmosphere, pop-rock and hip-hop-adjacent rhythms, giving us the towering drama of ‘Troy’, the ghostly beauty of ‘Jackie’, the fire of ‘Mandinka’ and the swagger of ‘I Want Your (Hands on Me)’.
A landmark debut from one of the most singular and uncompromising performers of her generation.
TRACKS:Side A
Jackie
Mandinka
Jerusalem
Just Like U Said It Would B
Never Get Old
Side B
Troy
I Want Your (Hands on Me)
Drink Before the War
Just Call Me Joe
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