Throw Down Your Arms

1	Jah Nuh Dead 3:20
2	Marcus Garvey 3:28
3	Door Peep 3:22
4	He Prayed 3:27
5	Y Mas Gan 3:49
6	Curly Locks 4:22
7	Vampire 4:02
8	Prophet Has Arise 4:26
9	Downpressor Man 5:08
10	Throw Down Your Arms 4:13
11	Untold Stories 3:40
12	War 4:04
13	[Untitled Hidden Track] CD-ROM Track
14	[Untitled Hidden Track] CD-ROM Track

Barnes & Noble

Sinéad O'Connor has had a soft spot for reggae music from the very start of her career -- its rebellious nature was an obvious fit for the iconoclastic singer. A decade and a half later, it's another side to Jamaican music that appeals to this mother of three: the spiritual teachings of Rastafarianism. Throw Down Your Arms is a reverent collection from O'Connor, and as such she doesn't change these powerful protest numbers a bit. Backed by an all-star band including Sly and Robbie, saxophonist Dean Frazer, drummer Sticky Thompson, vocalist Pam Hall, and producers Collin "Bulby" Yorke and Fatta Marshall, Sinéad delivers note-perfect renditions of songs by Burning Spear, Peter Tosh, Bob Marley, and others. Of course, most Sinéad fans wouldn't know "Curly Locks" from any of the close-cropped singer's originals, so the familiarity that comes with most covers albums is strikingly absent. In a way, O'Connor's curated her own history in reggae: There's the preachy "Prophet Has Arise," the anti-church (and anti-papist, no doubt) "Vampire," and militant numbers such as Burning Spear's "Marcus Garvey." Doom comes to nonbelievers on Tosh's "Downpressor Man," and the struggles of the poor are limned in one of the album's most surprising tracks, "Untold Stories." That recent side by noted homophobe turned spiritual seeker Buju Banton perhaps best evokes O'Connor's reasons for this curious, affecting set. After an outrageous youth, she's matured, and has turned her gifts to uplift and love. And while the title track suggests thoughts of peace, O'Connor's last words, from Haile Selassie via Bob Marley, are the stirring words of "War." Maybe that rebel's not so far gone after all. Mark Schwartz

All Music Guide

There's no debating that Sinéad O'Connor is one of the great singers to come from the pop world in the late 20th century. Her recordings and live performances have underscored her reputation in spades. Throw Down Your Arms is her first official outing since her "retirement" three years previously. Despite the cover photo of O'Connor as a young communicant, the set here is strictly hard reggae -- all the cuts are covers of classic reggae tunes. Recorded at Tuff Gong and Anchor Studios in Kingston, Jamaica, and produced by Sly & Robbie -- who are also the key rhythm section on the disc -- it stars some of the cream of the scene's elder crop, from guitarist Mikey Chung to Sticky Thompson, Dean Fraser, and many others. Beginning with the a cappella "Jah Nuh Dead" by Winston Rodney (Burning Spear), O'Connor does reverential readings of these canonical reggae classics. She takes no liberties, the band is mixed right up front with her voice, and she gets deep into the dread groove from Burning Spear's "Door Peep" and the title cut to Peter Tosh's "Downpressor Man" and Lee Perry's "Curly Locks" and "Vampire." O'Connor is a great interpreter of these songs because she understands they need nothing to be complete. They stand the test of time simply because they are great songs. She wraps herself in the rhythm and the spiritual groove and lets them cover her, saturate her, and come through her into the air where she separates God from the religions of men. Dynamite singing, a killer band, and wonderful material do a fine album make. Welcome back, Sinéad. Thom Jurek