O'CONNOR, SINEAD

Much has been made in Sinead O'Connor fan circles and the pop music press about the controversy-courting singer's decision to revive her self-shelved career with a disc of reggae covers. After the critical breakthrough that was 2002's Sean-Nos Nua, an album of traditional Irish tunes artfully reimagined, a jaunt through Jamaica carried the whiff of a stunt--there she goes banging the drum of defiance again, went the popular gripe, just when the world had widely concurred it liked her riffling through the dustbins of her own musical roots. On closer inspection, though, O'Connor's sabbatical to Burning Spear country makes a lot of sense: rewind to 1992, when she famously ripped a picture of the Pope on "Saturday Night Live," and the memory that it was Bob Marley's "War" that struck her as suitable tearing music clicks into place. What Throw Down Your Arms reveals more than anything is that the rasta spirit has never fully left O'Connor. Separating "religious music" from "music about God," O'Connor gracefully insinuates herself into each of these songs, imbuing some (the sparsely done "Jah Nuh Dead," "Marcus Garvey," "War") with characteristic fire and indignation and others, including the title track and the charming "Curly Locks," with a fully realized and oddly audible sense of enlightenment. Significantly, her signature Irish lilt is fully tact here; it's her sole white-girl spin on a series of universally appealing, otherwise untouched songs. Groundbreaking producers Sly & Robbie and a real-deal reggae backing band lively up the proceedings without peeling away the message. --Tammy La Gorce