A Woman’s Heart

I’d never heard of this compilation of Irish women, but at least it’s Irish women, not Celtic Women. For some historical context, this was the best selling Irish record in 1992. The lead single off of this record was one of the only ones to keep Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” from the #1 spot in any European country. The only two songs written and recorded for this comp are the two Eleanor McEvoy tracks, including said lead single, “Only A Woman’s Heart”. Also, women didn’t have nearly as many rights in Ireland in the 90s as they did in England or the USA, but I’ll leave that political commentary to others.

The packaging sucks. A plain green background, gold lettering, and an impressionistic George Russell painting of two women against a sunset entitled “the Potato Gatherers”? Blatant nationalistic pandering. Rather than lyrics (probably because of rights issues with the fact that it’s a compilation), the interior is six blown out portraits.

The Eleanor McEvoy tracks are good. “Sonny” by Mary Black is good. The two Sharon Shannon tracks are complete duds. They’re sunny, goofy instrumentals lead by button-accordion. They’re cartoon pirate music. I don’t mind “Coridinio” but it’s in the wrong context entirely; I don’t think “Blackbird” is salvageable. Everything else ranges from bland to awkward. They’re an ungainly mix between American country music and English middle-of-the-road balladry in various proportions. The last track is an eight minute, twenty second rendition of After The Ball, which could have been done in three and forty.

I see why this was popular. They aimed for the lowest common Irish denominator, and then scatter-shot around it to get a little veneer of individuality. There’s something for everyone, but unfortunately there’s not enough that’s meant for me. I kept on losing focus when trying to listen to this record and found it hard to land on concrete things to say about it other than the accordion tracks. It’s just a bland record.

A Woman’s Heart is a bad album, and I don’t like it.