Nothing Compares 2 U, covered by Sinead O'Connor (1990)

Guess what he told me

Writing about music is like waltzing about philosophy. But some songs can be talked about even by the reluctant. O'Connor's cover of "Nothing Compares 2 U" fits the bill. Prince wrote it in 1984. Probably in a couple of a hours. He would craft hundreds of songs on similar themes. It bears his marks. You could not get a more Prince lyric than "Since you took your love away from me." But the song is Sinead's now. More accurately, the song is everybody's, brought to us by her.

Part of what's special here begins with the opening precision of "It’s been seven hours and fifteen days." The speaker is actively counting, hoping the loss diminishes. Then O'Connor murmurs down to "since you took your love away." She lifts again on "I go out every night and sleep all day" then crouches down again. At this point, we think we know where the song will go: up and down in F Major, loud emotional confession following by quiet vulnerability. Sure enough, Sinead leans into "What-ever I waaant," which is somehow both a broken yowl and yet ends sharply on "-nt"--just so beautifully engineered, it ought to be in Swiss watch. No surprises yet.

But then the drum machine kicks in, right at the minute mark. Sinead defiantly tells you she can eat her dinner in a fancy rest-au-rant, and we're off to the races. "Nothing Compares 2 U" is like having your best friend sit in your kitchen and talk about her latest breakup. You've heard her angst before; but this time, right as she mentions eating dinner, she starts losing it in a very disciplined way. You comfort her, while feeling that you are seeing something you shouldn't have.

O'Connor's phrasing carries two conflicting signals. First, the obvious tells of "This is a breakup song." But what makes “Nothing Compares 2 U” special is the second piece: the singer is angry about having to play the role of a wretched lover. It's almost as if the song itself resents being a heartbreak anthem. Look at the lyrics. They never discuss the lover directly. Makes sense. This is a song about the empty space.

All this is just warmup. Only then does Sinead stubbornly drill into our thick heads that "Went to the doctor, and guess what he told me" and then, if we didn't take the hint: "*Guess* what he told me." And the synth builds as she hammers the nails in, her gall at being handed such useless advice: "He said GIRL, you BETTER TRY TO HAVE FUN, no matter what you do."

We close on a very human note. The singer tries to balance her self-respect with admission of raw animal need: "I know that living with you baby was sometimes hard" (not living with me, living with *you*), pause. Pause. And then, the confession: "But I'm willing to give it another try" drawn out to a dry, brittle, knife-point. Is the singer deluded? Maybe. But she is finally, quietly admitting what has happened. Not just "You are gone, and that is sad," but "You are gone, and gravity no longer exists."

Which is strangely uplifting. Suppose grief is the price we pay for love. With that cost comes a great lesson: hell is not sadness. Hell is feeling nothing, and never having had anything to feel that way about. In the same way that running and losing a race is still better than never having gotten off the couch. "Nothing Compares 2 U" is not about the lover, but about the act of loving, and how longing proves it mattered. As the poet said, you can't take loved away.