Pitchfork

Sinead O'Connor may have had some beef with the Pope in her past, but her relationship with Jah is another story-- she won't be tearing up any pictures of Haile Selassie anytime soon. You see, life is a big circle, and if we remember Sinead's notorious appearance on Saturday Night Live in 1992 correctly, she sang Bob Marley's "War" with a Rastafarian prayer cloth around her mic before tearing up a picture of His Holiness. Ahh, now her current project makes a little more sense.

Today, O'Connor will release her new album, Throw Down Your Arms, on Sinead's own label, That's Why There's Chocolate & Vanilla. It's a strictly roots reggae affair, featuring covers of legendary artists like Marley, Peter Tosh, Burning Spear, and Lee "Scratch" Perry. The album was recorded at Tuff Gong and Anchor Studios in Kingston, Jamaica, with the renowned rhythm section of Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare producing. Sly and Robbie are accompanying Sinead on her current world tour, which will bring her to North America for the first time in seven years.

The shaved-headed singer "retired" from music in 2003, but announced this past February in an interview with Ireland's Hot Press that she was returning to the biz. Sinead is reportedly working on a new album titled Theology, a "collection of spiritual songs" due out in 2007.

Throw Down Your Arms tracklist:

01 Jah Nuh Dead
02 Marcus Garvey
03 Door Peep
04 He Prayed
05 Curly Locks
06 Vampire
07 Y Mas Gan
08 Prophet Has Arise
09 Downpressor Man
10 Throw Down Your Arms
11 Untold Stories
12 War

Tour dates (all shows with Sly and Robbie):

11-04 Dublin, Ireland - Helix
11-06 Glasgow, Scotland - Barrowland
11-07 Manchester, England - Academy
11-08 London, England - Shepherds Bush Empire
11-09 Wolverhampton, England - Wulfrun
11-12 Paris, France - Olympia
11-14 Berlin, Germany - Tempodrom
11-15 Cologne, Germany - E-Werk
11-16 The Hague, Netherlands - Theatre at Aan't Spui
11-17 Brussels, Belgium - Cirque Royal
11-28 Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue
11-29 Chicago, IL - Riviera
12-01 Detroit, MI - State Theater
12-02 Cleveland, OH - House of Blues
12-03 Toronto, Ontario - Kool Haas
12-05 Boston, MA - Avalon
12-06 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club
12-08 New York, NY - Webster Hall
12-09 New York, NY - Webster Hall
12-10 Philadelphia, PA - Electric Factory