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