Sinead O’Connor “I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got” released 30 years ago today, March 20th, 1990. It was O’Connor’s second album and a massive hit, hitting #1 in a ton of countries, including the US and the UK, propelled by her #1 song, the reworking of Prince’s “Nothing Compares 2 U” which she released in January ‘90. I bought the CD of I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got in ‘90 (this LP is a fairly recent acquisition: we picked it up in London this past summer – for whatever reason pretty much every used record store had at least a copy or two in their bins). I adored Sinead in the 80′s and early 90′s – her voice and music hit a particular chord for me – and this record utterly slayed me when it was released. I was a freshman in college at UW-Madison and while overall it was a great year, there were some times of heart-wrenching pain. Listening to this album helped me wallow in that for a bit (the track “The Last Day of Our Acquaintance” was particularly good for that). “Nothing Compares 2 U” is brilliant and still stirs up some light misting around the eyes. I also adore “The Emperor’s New Clothes” which is so raw and angry; it was her second single from the album and went to #31 in the UK and #60 in the US (though hit #1 on the US Alternative chart). “I Am Stretched Out on Your Grave” is super-hypnotic and “Black Boys on Mopeds” is super-sad in a socio-political commentary kind of way. I also like “Jump in the River” which I think was written and released a couple of years before this LP; she co-wrote it with UK punk Marco Pirroni who played briefly with Siouxsie and the Banshees at their first gig in ‘76 and later played with Adam and the Ants, co-writing some of Ant’s biggest hits.