By Odeisel

Addiction is a horrible thing. If you’ve never been stuck on something so much that the rest of your existence becomes second nature to some…thing, you can’t really understand it. I sure don’t. But I can recognize the emotion and desperation associated with that process. You want something so much that the pursuit of that feeling blinds you to everything in your life aside from that high. Sinead O Connor does an unearthly job of presenting that desperate search and the inner turmoil that comes as you wrestle for your own moment of clarity on “Reason With Me.”

The echoed re-verb of sparse instrumentation haunts this song. Piano chords are stark and punctuate with sharp high keys and somber lows. They swim with acoustic guitar licks and a run of low level high-hats that simmer throughout the track. Sinead’s breathy and at time whispered delivery reflect her hushed desperation; a voice that fears that no one is listening to cries for help and a self so worn from fighting an urge that reason is barely able to manifest.

“Hello, you don’t know me, but I took your laptop and I took your TV,” opens O’ Connor, half confessing, half looking for someone to care. She’s been a junkie for so long, and wants to change, but she’s weary from fighting the pull of addiction, making empty promises to “call that number one of these days.” She’s done things so far past what she thought she was capable of (hijacking shipments with threats ofa hypodermic needle). O’Connor is in desperate need of an anchor to pull her back to reality, ashamed of wasting her life yet clinging to the hope that it isn’t too late to turn her life around.

That’s the cycle. Until you reach that bottom, you spiral, going around in circles getting closer to redemption and escape only to fall prey to the same triggers and weakness that drew you in initially pendulum swinging until you crash in self disgust, or you find a strong enough reason to get addicted to life. When you hear this song, you can feel that struggle, delivered masterfully the way very few vocalists could ever hope to match. It’s not a measure of notes, but a matter of execution, emoting and understanding.  O’ Connor’s delivery is disturbingly authentic. Perhaps she’s had someone reason with her. Hear and understand. “Reason With Me.”

Sinead O’ Connor – “Reason With Me”

Sinead O Connor -Reason With Me