Sinead O'Connor was once my favorite performer—she of the breathy Irish lilt and the edgy, empowered rage—producing some of my favorite alternative rock of the late 80s and early 90s. I would play her first two albums endlessly on my CD player, feeling a real emotional tug to songs such as The Last Day of Our Acquaintance, Nothing Compares 2 U, and You Made Me the Thief of Your Heart. But then the Saturday Night Live incident happened—you know, when she nervously tore that photo of the Pope in half and yelled, "Fight the real enemy!"—and she basically destroyed her career. Later on, she even retired from the music business.

Well, she's back—in fact, she's been back for a while, quietly producing low-key efforts that have slipped under the radar of most of her original fanbase. Since the mid-90s, she's put out a couple of EPs and two gentle, spiritual albums called Faith and Courage (2000) and Sean-Nos Nua (2002). Obviously, Sinead ain't aiming for the top of the charts anymore, and that's fine. She's making very personal music, in the tradition of Irish lullabies, laments, and political protest songs. She is no longer the person she was when she made the angry, righteous CDs that launched her career. Today, she's more spiritual, more enveloped in the magical, and her music is grounded firmly in the tradition of Irish lyricism and rhythm. I've continued to buy her CDs because I think she has one of the most beautiful voices in music today. But I do long for the Sinead I fell in love with back in the 80s.

This DVD, Sinead O'Connor: Goodnight, Thank You, You've Been a Lovely Audience, captures a live performance in which she sings half a dozen songs from her new album, as well as another half dozen songs from her brilliant past—you know, to satisfy old fans like me. The performance itself is generally satisfying. She's a fine performer, if a little prone to staying rooted to one spot. And I should make note of an annoying habit. When she starts singing loudly, she has a tendency to turn her mouth away from the microphone. The result is that some of the higher-end vocals are lost. It provides a definite imbalance in the presentation.

Here's the track listing, in which I've boldfaced my personal favorites:

1) Molly Malone
2) Oro Se Do Bneatha Bhale
3) The Singing Bird
4) My Lagan Love
5) I Am Stretched on Your Grave
6) Nothing Compares 2 U
7) John I Love You
8) The Moorlough Shore
9) You Made Me the Thief of Your Heart
10) Paddy's Lament
11) Thank You for Hearing Me
12) Fire on Babylon
13) The Last Day of Our Acquaintance

I'm not a huge fan of the direction Sinead O'Connor's music has taken since the mid-90s, but I understand that the music is important to her, that it truly stirs her soul. And that's all that matters, I guess. Traditional Irish folk music just doesn't stir my soul.

Eagle Vision presents Sinead O'Connor: Goodnight, Thank You, You've Been a Lovely Audience in a surprisingly pleasing 1.85:1 anamorphic-widescreen transfer. Most concerts I've seen have been presented in full-frame, so I couldn't make the best use of my widescreen set. The fact that this is concert is not only enhanced for widescreen sets, but also of fine image quality, is very satisfying.

The levels of sharpness and detail are just fine. Colors are solid, bringing across the blue-tinted stage vividly. Skin tones are perfectly pink. Blacks aren't terribly deep. Because the concert was shot on video, you get the typical flaws. Video is particularly vulnerable to shimmering and aliasing, and I caught quite a few instances of both. Also, the image is plagued by edge halos—quite badly.

The disc offers three audio tracks: Dolby Digital 2.0, Dolby Digital 5.1, and DTS 5.1.

The Dolby Digital 2.0 track is quite a bit quieter than the two surround tracks but offers a presentation that seems completely unprocessed—in other words, perhaps more accurate to the original recorded elements. The front soundstage is very wide, providing a nice depth and a you-are-there openness.

The Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 tracks are pumped up with bass and information in the surround channels for a more enveloping experience. The surround processing has given the presentation a certain warmth, particularly in the vocals and low end. There's very little difference between the two surround tracks, except that the DTS track offers cleaner vocals. By comparison, the Dolby Digital 5.1 track seems the slightest bit harsh.

First up is a series of self-made Music Videos of songs from her Sean-Nos Nua album. These are faux performance videos, in which she and her band assemble with their instruments to, for example, perform at the edge of a river or in the midst of a forest. They're all very gentle and peaceful, so if you're more of a fan of the rocker Sinead than the gentle-spiritual Sinead, you might want to give these a pass. The songs are Peggy Gordon, Molly Malone, The Moorlough Shore, The Singing Bird, My Lagan Love, and Oro Se Do Bneatha Bhale.

Next is the 52-minute documentary The Song of Heart's Desire, in which Sinead and her band members and friends talk about the music they're making. We get a lot of talk about how personal these new songs are to Sinead, as she and her fellows wax poetic about the emotional and political power of traditional Irish folk songs. We also see much footage of her singing and recording in her studio. It's a slow-moving, heartfelt affair, much like her recent music.

Pleasingly, the documentary is presented in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen, but it suffers from virtually the same problems as the concert—bad edge halos and other compression artifacts. However, detail and color are right on.

There's a lot of heart put into this DVD, and I really appreciate the anamorphic-widescreen presentation of both the concert and the documentary. If you enjoy Sinead O'Connor in her most recent musical mode—that of spiritual Irish song-whisperer—then you will love this DVD. Even if you pine for the Sinead of the 80s and 90s, however, the DVD contains some good performances of great older songs.