Four star

THE rise and fall of Sinead O'Conner has been spectacular.

After soaring to the heights with Prince's Nothing Compares 2U, she has frittered her talents on ill-judged and self-indulgent projects.

But this, what must be her best album for a decade, will come as a great relief to frustrated fans.

The Dublin songstress has returned to the source of her craft with 13 tracks of traditional Irish ballads which, she tells us, she learned as a child 'from my father, some at school and some I learned as I was wandering around the universe, on my own'.

Most are set to restrained, acoustic instruments but this is no mere folk fest.

Backed by some of the best musicians around, O'Conner brings a modern dynamic to the old lilting lyrics, even the evergreen Mollie Malone.

She tells the story of her people, their tenderness and troubles, through Peggy Gordon, Lord Franklin, the epic Lord Baker and Paddy's Lament.

Tracks like The Parting Glass and I'll Tell Ma take the art of Irish songcraft to a new level and she spices up two Gaelic songs.

The key element is Sinead's beautiful voice, paradoxically both powerful and vulnerable.

Not since 2U has she sounded so aching and poignant, intense and tender, soaring once more.

PGW