The Seattle Times June 7, 1990, Thursday, Final Edition NOTHING COMPARES 2 SINEAD -- AS HER FANS SCREAM, IRISH SUPERSTAR SINGS FROM THE HEART WITH DEEP, MOVING LYRICS BY PATRICK MACDONALD Sinead O'Connor and Hugh Harris last night at the Paramount Theatre. by Patrick MacDonald Times staff critic Sinead O'Connor is playing the game by her rules. The dramatic Irish singer - who has come on strong with the biggest single and most critically-acclaimed album of the year - is pop's newest star. Her stark, beautiful face is on the cover of the current Rolling Stone. But she didn't act like a star last night at the Paramount. Even while the excited capacity crowd screamed and yelped and whistled and wouldn't shut up, she stood still at the microphone and delivered strong, deeply personal songs about love and longing, in a voice that went from a whisper to a howl. The centerpiece of the set was, not surprisingly, "Nothing Compares 2 U," the achingly moving song about lost love and betrayal, written by Prince, that was No. 1 for five weeks in April and May. She sang it even more forcefully than on the record, with spine-tingling, full-throated intensity. Going against tradition, the encore wasn't her new single or a past cult favorite, but what she called "an old-time Scottish song" about a woman who is forced to marry a nobleman, and then kills herself on the wedding night rather than lay in his bed. Before she sang it, a cappella, she asked the crowd to be silent. And through the whole, long, anguished folk song you couldn't hear anything but her rich, clear voice, filling the theater with the ghost of that dead bride. Such moments of stark drama - which make O'Connor stand out almost as much as her famous shaved head (now grown out to a bristle) - were offset by hard-driving rock songs that had O'Connor smiling and dancing and literally kicking up her heels. Among those welcome moments of rhythmic relief, performed with her five-piece band (including former Adam Ant cohort, guitarist Marco Pirroni), were the two rockingest songs on her brilliant new "I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got" album, "Jump In the River" and "The Emperor's New Clothes." She opened the set with the first song from that LP, "Feel So Different," in which she announces that she's changed since her 1987 debut album, "The Lion and the Cobra." And she was very different from her only other show here, two years ago at Parker's. Then all the songs were dirgelike and she hardly moved as she sang them. There was a frank sexual undercurrent to that performance., expressed in crude, graphic songs that had an angry edge. This time the only overtly sexual moment was when she caressed herself during her dance-floor hit, "(I Want Your) Hands On Me." But it was short and tentative. Mostly she seemed happy to be performing, even when the songs were downers. Her big blue eyes shined and a smile often crossed her delicate face. The show was opened by British soul singer Hugh Harris and his band, who delivered a short set of rather ordinary R&B songs.