REVIEW: Sinead Lohan, No Mermaid (Interscope)
- Dan Aloi
Sinead who?
At first I was skeptical about this Irish singer-songwriter's American debut, given the hype she's received. And not just in the press clips -- the fates were somehow determined to make me hear this album. I was handed a 2-song sampler by a Lilith Fair vendor a few weeks ago (a date she wasn't on the tour, by the way), then I had an advance album to review. (The fully finished product arrived a few days ago.)
Once I had the advance CD, I kind of half-listened, warily. No response. A few days later, I'm working around the house, taping a Neil Young album. After Neil, Sinead creeps on the changer. And...
Wow.
"I am no mermaid, I am no mermaid..." Lohan's voice carries over waves of distant drums and guitar strums on the opener; the oceanic folk is a nicely atmospheric but forceful background. The song seems to be a statement of empowerment. Joan Baez even sang it on the recent Newport Folk Festival tour, an endorsement of this young Irish talent.
Lohan and producer Malcolm Burn must have sensed that it could become tiresome if all the songs sounded like this, so they mix it up. So "Loose Ends" is a cabaret blues, while other tracks use just voice and guitar to stark effect. Percussion and keyboards layer into a modern femme-rock arrangement (in terms of beats), on "Hot On Your Trail."
A lot of the advance word had her compared to that other Sinead, but to me, Lohan's singing and songs are closer to Suzanne Vega, particularly on "What Can Never Be," a plainly arranged ballad of powerful emotion that doesn't need the angry-grrrl treatment to get its point across.
At the end of the album, "Diving to Be Deeper" has a fun, new wave beat, a nice poppy little summer single on its own, a further reward for listening. Sinead Lohan has all the artistic vision and personal grit of Vega, the grandeur of fellow Celt Van Morrison, and the incise mastery of words and music of a Richard Thompson or a Paul Kelly.
And did I say hype? Damned if it's not deserved. I'm going to turn my 15-year-old daughter on to Sinead Lohan -- the most promising voice from the British Isles I've heard, at least since Beth Orton and Trailer Park .
