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Lion Reviews Sinead Lohan

Sinead Lohan -- No Mermaid
1998

Is it possible to write a one word review? I believe it was possible for Patty Griffin's Living With Ghosts. If someone asked me my impression of her first album I would say "Convincing". Of course the CD is well written, beautifully performed, sincere, meaningful, touching, human, varied in styles and tone. It is all that, but it is convincing. Just listen to the CD and offer me a better one word review.

I think a one word review is also possible for Sinead Lohan's No Mermaid. In a word, this CD is Not Timeless. Upon reading the last sentence I realize that I supplied two words for a one word review, so I hereby decree a new word for the Webster Dictionary: Not-Timeless.

I purchased the CD in one of those upstairs used CD stores, where the employees allow the customer to go behind the counter to preview CDs. Upon hearing the title track "No Mermaid" and previewing the rest of the CD, I decided on the purchase. I could listen to many of these tracks over and over, but I think I'd prefer most all of these songs if they were not collected together, but on a compilation album or a movie soundtrack.

"No Mermaid" is a song about knowing and trusting yourself when others may try to pull you back to safety. The theme of the song is not that the she cannot or should not swim, but that she can swim in shark infested waters and keep her head "above the waves". So is there complete safety for this person? Perhaps not, but for the author, it is better to swim with a risk than not to swim at all. She repeats this existential theme in "Don't I Know":

     Don't I know the days are only
     what we make them?
     Don't I know the nights go only
     where we take them?

Other songs repeat the theme of responsibility and choices in relationships, but the lyrics lack strength, vivid characters, and compelling imagery.