There has never been mistaking Sinead O’Connor for anybody else. A voice born to break as many hearts as windows, as tender as it is lethal. The face, simultaneously that of ocean-wide-eyed angel and shaven-headed warrior queen. And the spirit, courageous in its conviction, undaunted by controversy and fortified with endless reserves of resilience. Sinead O’Connor is that rare thing in popular music: a complete one-off.

Lest the world dare forget who Sinead O’Connor is, it’s about to be reminded once more. 25 years after her debut, 1987’s ‘The Lion And The Cobra’, she returns with ‘How About I Be Me (And You Be You)?’, her ninth studio album and as show stopping a performance as her silver jubilee deserves. Produced by long-term collaborator John Reynolds, its ten tracks play like an encyclopaedic definition of O’Connor’s oeuvre: songs about love and loss, hope and regret, pain and redemption, anger and justice. “I kind of realised I’ve spent a lot of my life as an artist being told what I should be”, says O’Connor of the title. “Being told you should be this, you should do this, you shouldn’t do that. You get to a certain age when you realise no, it’s perfectly OK for me to be me, thank you very much, and you to be you. But it’s very much an Irish thing. It’s really a comment about Ireland and what it’s like to be an Irish female artist, and particularly THIS Irish female artist.”