Sinéad O’Connor A Perfect Indian (1994)
“A perfect Indian is he, remembering him, life is sweet, like a weeping willow, his face on my pillow, comes to me still in my dreams.” So begins “A Perfect Indian”, a melancholy love song from Irish singer Sinéad O’Connor’s fourth studio album, Universal Mother, released at the height of her fame in 1994.
In her autobiography, O’Connor revealed she named the song after the British actor Daniel Day-Lewis, who was filming for The Last of the Mohicans around the time they met. “People think we had an affair, but we never did,” she said of their 1990s friendship. They eventually fell out, she admitted, over her notorious temper. The song’s title also nods to the era’s blind spots: in the early 1990s, it was unremarkable to center a white star as a Native American leader—or to offer what was framed as a compliment in those terms. Sinéad loved everyone, and that's what really matters.
The song unfolds as a slow piano ballad, Sinéad singing over somber keys: “He’s shy and he speaks quietly. He’s gentle and he seems to me, like the elf-arrow, his face worn and harrowed, is he a daydreamer like me.”
Though something of a deep cut in her catalogue, Universal Mother marked a turning point for O’Connor—her first attempt to peel back the anger and political charge of her earlier work and reveal what lay beneath. She sings with striking depth, grappling with the human condition, the sorrows and struggles of life. The record also features a Nirvana cover and closes with a song about her breakup with Peter Gabriel. What a time to be alive in the ’90s.
It’s perfect Sunday-afternoon listening. And those who want to dive deeper into the lore might want to take a look at her autobiography Rememberings—the audiobook version is narrated by O’Connor herself with great vim and wicked character.
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