The Lion And The Cobra - Sinéad O'Connor

What a debut.
The Lion And The Cobra introduced the world to Sinéad O Connor. A fiesty troubled and highly original 20 year old, who, unhappy with the original record company production of the album (she thought it was too celtic) went ahead (7 months pregnant) and produced it herself. This early declaration of self belief is something that seems to have stayed with her her whole career, this lady has GUTS.
Their were two versions of the Album Cover produced, the angry pose used here and the softer image used for a more conservative American market.
The Lion And The Cobra burst out of the Irish recession gloom in 1987 with an anti establishment attitude prompting Rolling Stone to declare it was like "a banshee wailing across the bog" at best a trite little piece of copy they made up for by comparing her to Laurie Anderson and Kate Bush.
Post Punk Pop Glam Rock, heavily influenced by Prince (with whom she would later successfully collaborate) the album is at times intense, at times almost wistful.
Troy juxtaposes Dublin in a rainstorm with a burning Troy, starting off gentle, mystical and romantic, and building to a fire-spitting crescendo. Mandinka is perfect Pop Rock with its "crunching" chords and hooks. There's a hip hop feel to I Want Your (Hands On Me) and Enya guest vocals on Never Get Old.
The Album gets it's name from the the Ninety First Psalm, and religion (a favourite O'Connor topic) is a regular theme, in Just Like You Said It Would be "I will walk in the garden/and feel religion within" and Jerusalem "and the priest just said it got burned"
Throughout, The Lion And The Cobra is a tour force for a young woman finding her voice, and what a voice.

Track listing
1. Jackie
2. Mandinka
3. Jerusalem
4. Just Like U Said It Would B
5. Never Get Old
6. Troy
7. I Want Your (Hands On Me)
8. Drink Before The War
9. Just Call Me Joe

Tracy Chapman - Tracy Chapman

In 1988 a clear and distinctive voice gained well deserved critical acclaim when a gutsy and politicised Tracy Chapman released her eponymous debut album. Heralding in a new era of highly original female singer songwriters that included Sarah Mc Lachlan and Tori Amos.
From the simple unblinking clarity of Why "Why are all the missiles called peacekeepers when they're aimed to kill" to the almost painful tenderness of Baby Can I hold You, Tracy Chapman provided the Bush Sr. era with a radical, brave and confrontational voice, wrapped up in simple and clean production.
The stand out single is Fast Car. Chapmans biggest hit to date it took on social class and poverty in modern day America with unapologetic confidence. Similar themes are tackled with the album opener Talkin' About A Revolution "They're standing in the welfare lines, crying at the doorsteps of those armies of salvation"
In Across The Lines the black/white divisions "kill the dream of America" and the haunting acapella Behind The Wall lays bare the realities of domestic violence "Last night I heard the screaming,Then a silence that chilled my soul, I prayed that I was dreaming, When I saw the ambulance in the road"
These are protest songs, and Chapmans melodic ability and distinctive voice took them to the airwaves and the charts.
This is a timeless album, tackling themes that unfortunately almost 20 years later, are even more relevant today.

Track Listing
1. Talkin' Bout A Revolution
2. Fast Car
3. Across The Lines
4. Behind The Wall
5. Baby Can I Hold You
6. Mountains O' Things
7. She's Got Her Ticket
8. Why?
9. For My Lover
10. If Not Now
11. For You

Elephant - The White Stripes

Divorced Couple? Brother and Sister? Sonically charged gifted duo The White Stripes tore the world asunder with the release of their 4th album Elephant in 2003 providing them with their first UK Chart Topper. - Just to clear things up they are actually a divorced couple.
Elephant was recorded in two weeks in 2002 in London's Toe Rag Studios. Jack White produced the album with deliberately antiquated equipment, including an eight-track tape machine and pre-1960s recording gear; this is something the band have always done, as recording quickly gives them a live energetic sound.
The album cover had many variations worldwide, all similiar, however Jack and Meg change positions, on the cover featured here, you can see the shape of an elephants head with the duo forming the ears.
The music? Well the big song from this album is now a staple anthem. Seven Nation Army pulverized listeners from the first 6 note’s. For the nerds out there this song is a rare example of the Phrygian Half Cadence in popular music, for the rest of us it simply rocks. The Seven Nation Army referred to in the song is simply the way Jack White pronounced The Salvation Army as a child. The video for this track is fantastic and everyone from Metallica to Jamie Callum done cover versions of the song.
Burt Bacharach makes an appearance their own cover version of I Just Don’t Know What to Do With Myself, originally a hit for Dusty Springfield in 1966. Sofia Coppola created a sensational video for this which simply had Kate Moss pole dancing.....it doesn’t take much.
The Hardest Button To Button is a song about a child trying to find his place in a dysfunctional family when a new baby comes. It is a catchy song with a driving beat amply provided by Meg. The video was directed by French director Michel Gondry.
One of my personal favourites from the album is There’s No Home For You Here. I don’t think I’m alone when I think there is a Queen type sound in this song, maybe it's the great harmonies?
A dark, paranoid, stunning album that leaves the listener begging for more, from the gentle You’ve Got Her In Your Pocket to the feverish Hypnotize, Elephant is an authentic accomplished album, the influence of which is only beginning to be seen in music today.

Track listing
1. Seven Nation Army
2. Black Math
3. There's No Home For You Here
4. I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself
5. In The Cold, Cold Night
6. I Want To Be The Boy To Warm Your Mother's Heart
7. You've Got Her In Your Pocket
8. Ball And Biscuit
9. Hardest Button To Button, The
10. Little Acorns
11. Hypnotise
12. Air Near My Fingers, The
13. Girl, You Have No Faith In Medicine
14. Well It's True That We Love One Another

Like A Prayer - Madonna

This weeks Critical Junction sprinkles a bit of perfect pop sunshine into November rain with 1989's Like A Prayer. Madonna's fourth studio release, she fuses rock, dance, funk and soul and delivers her most mature lyrics yet.

The original album release featured a special edition run that was Patchouli scented, Madonnas favourite smell (oh dear) and an AIDS info pamphlet which is still included today.
The stand out track is the eponymous Like A Prayer building from a get your groove on chorus to an all out preacherman gospel belter. The religious content of the track carried over to its controversial video in which Maddy witnesses a murder, snogs a saint, dances around burning crosses and even catches herself some stigmata. Eighties survivors will know this was stir causing stuff.
Personal experience is laid bare in Till Death Do Us Part, dealing with the end of her marriage to Sean Penn, Oh Father reveals a difficult relationship with her Dad that's somewhat softened with the closing lyrics "Maybe someday,When I look back I'll be able to say, You didn't mean to be cruel, Somebody hurt you too"
Her Mother features in Promise To Try and Madonna even dedicated the album to "my mother who taught me to pray"
There's plenty of classic pop fun too, Cherish, Express Yourself and Keep It Together will all have the fingers and feet tapping, and even a duet with Prince, Love Song.
Rolling Stone said it was "as close to art as Pop music gets" Decide for yourself on Thursday Morning.

Track Listing
1. Like A Prayer
2. Express Yourself
3. Love Song
4. Till Death Do Us Part
5. Promise To Try
6. Cherish
7. Dear Jessie
8. Oh Father
9. Keep It Together
10. Spanish Eyes
11. Act Of Contrition