Sinéad O'Connor

The expanded limited edition of Sinéad O'Connor's breakthrough second album, I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got, contains a second bonus disc that gathers almost all the stray tracks she released in the wake of the album's success. Most of these were originally released as B-sides to the album's singles, although not every B-side from this time winds up here, with a few mixes and live cuts left behind. That gives the impression that the tracks that made the cut for the bonus disc are a bit more substantial than those not here, and that's more or less true: there are her post-LP singles "My Special Child" and "Silent Night," her cover of "You Do Something to Me" for the Cole Porter charity tribute album Red Hot + Blue, the non-LP "What Do You Want," and previously unreleased covers of Gregory Issacs' "Night Nurse" and John Lennon's "Mind Games." Add to this the "Apple Brightness Mix" of "I Am Stretched on Your Grave" and live versions of "Troy" and "I Want Your (Hands on Me)," and the bonus disc winds up being a bit of a hodgepodge, relying too heavily on portentous ballads that never quite muster the emotional bloodletting of the album proper. Still, there are some nice moments here, particularly the unreleased covers and "You Do Something to Me," and the live cuts hint at Sinéad's on-stage power, which, along with the remastering, may be enough to warrant the acquisition of this limited edition for hardcore fans. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide