The Lion And The Cobra
by Sinéad O'Connor

The Lion And The Cobra by Sinéad O'Connor
Year: 1987
Release date: 1987-10-05
Overall rank: 1,318th   Overall chart history
Average Rating: 
78/100 (from 213 votes)
  Ratings distribution   Average rating history
Accolades:
Award Top albums of 1987 (24th)
Award Top albums of of the 1980s (210th)
Award Best albums of all time (1,318th)

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Sinead O'Connor - The Lion And The Cobra [New Vinyl LP] Reissue
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Sinead O'Connor The Lion And The Cobra & 4 Promo Cd Singles, Rebel Song, Mother
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Sinead O'Connor - The Lion and the Cobra CD 1987 Chrysalis Rock Pop
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Sinéad O'Connor bestography

The Lion And The Cobra is ranked 2nd best out of 15 albums by Sinéad O'Connor on BestEverAlbums.com.

The best album by Sinéad O'Connor is I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got which is ranked number 1052 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 1,662.

Sinéad O'Connor album bestography « Higher ranked (1,052nd)
I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got
This album (1,318th)
The Lion And The Cobra
Lower ranked (5,331st) »
Faith And Courage

(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).

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The Lion And The Cobra rankings

Rankings summary
Overall rank: 1,318th | 1980s rank: 210th | 1987 rank: 24th
Filter Filter
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YearSourceChartRankRank Score
2026 CharlieBarleyTop 100 Greatest Music Albums59/10042
2026skrapoelTop 100 Greatest Music Albums22/10075
2026 SomethingSpecialTop 100 Greatest Music Albums87/10014
2026 TamthebamTop 100 Music Albums of 198721/1004
2026brent13Top 100 Music Albums of the 1980s83/1004
2026SiromynianTop 100 Music Albums of the 1980s53/10010
2026 LeonardTop 100 Music Albums of 198725/1004
2026fabm0Top 28 Music Albums of 19872/285
2026 RomanelliTop 54 Music Albums of 198717/544
2026 MadhattanJackTop 69 Music Albums of 198711/694
2026 PurplepashTop 49 Music Albums of 198713/494
2026FinkyTop 100 Music Albums of the 1980s26/10015
2026matterhornriderTop 50 Music Albums of 198722/503
2026 ExTeaSeaTop 100 Music Albums of the 1980s42/10012
2026Juneof44Top 50 Music Albums of 198728/502
2026 LeonardTop 100 Music Albums of the 1980s67/1007
2026jtrizzle35Top 23 Music Albums of the 1980s11/2311
2026 Patman360Top 73 Music Albums of 198713/734
2026culwinTop 58 Music Albums of 198737/582
2026 imacgillTop 100 Music Albums of the 1980s9/10018
Total Charts: Help The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. 216
Total Rank Score: Help The total rank score. 1,308
You can include this album in your own chart from the My Charts page!

The Lion And The Cobra collection

The Lion And The Cobra ratings

Average Rating: 
78/100 (from 213 votes)
  Ratings distribution Help Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AV
where:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.

Showing latest 5 ratings for this album.  | Show all 213 ratings for this album.

Sort Sort by
RatingDate updatedMemberAlbum ratingsAvg. album rating
 
70/100
 !
5 days ago Pluto11  Ratings distribution  12,20372/100
 
100/100
 !
05/16/2026 18:55 CharlieBarley  Ratings distribution  3,25481/100
 
80/100
 !
05/09/2026 21:55 Smith  Ratings distribution  26185/100
 
70/100
 !
04/08/2026 21:50 araidernomore  Ratings distribution  46370/100
 
75/100
 !
02/28/2026 16:42 DaveH68  Ratings distribution  1,36376/100

Rating metrics: Help Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)

This album is rated in the top 2% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 77.8/100, a mean average of 77.3/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 78.1/100. The standard deviation for this album is 14.4.

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The Lion And The Cobra comments

Showing all 6 comments |
Most Helpful First | Newest First | Positive Sentiment First | Longest Comments First
(Only showing comments with -2 votes or higher. You can alter this threshold from your profile page. Manage Profile)

Rating:  
100/100
From 09/27/2019 11:35 | #243110
This is her best album
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
75/100
Really dig Mandinka, but the rest I just don't connect with. It's not bad, just not my thing.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
95/100
Ever since this album I follow Sinéad. This is one of her best albums.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
90/100
Enchanting and haunting debut that just keeps sounding better with each listen. By far her greatest effort.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +3 votes (3 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
90/100
Though her subsequent work often leaves me cold, O'Connor's debut is a brilliant, eclectic collection in which even the love songs, such as the gorgeous "Just Like U Said It Would B," sound fiery and raw. "Troy," one of the finest songs of the decade, is a devastating entreaty to an ex-lover she can't—or won't—shake free of. "Drink Before the War" is a passionate anti-war cry housed in a lovely ballad. "I Want Your (Hands On Me)" is a lusty little dance, catchy and about as subtle as the title would suggest. Songs such as "Jackie," "Just Call Me Joe," "Mandinka," "Never Get Old," and "Jerusalem" show an extraordinary array of subjects, styles and influences. These songs are deep and literate and often sound as if they cost O'Connor a piece of her soul to get them on record.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +5 votes (5 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
70/100
With this album, Sinead O'Connor combines hard-rock riffs, discordant electronics, neoclassical arrangements, funk grooves and hip-hop. These elements emphasize the full impact of her expressive and 'acrobatically' intense emotionally charged vocals that fuse Gregorian chants, African-American spirituals, Celtic ballads, middle-eastern Litanies and Laurie Anderson's and Meredith Monk's experiments on the human voice. The result is a masterpiece of an album that resembles a hallucinatory psychodrama that exudes vulnerability and loneliness.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +3 votes (3 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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