I strongly prefer the more emotional melancholy versions. Sinead of course, Pink does an amazing version with the BBC orchestra, and Mikey Cyrus does a superb mashup of it and Wrecking Ball. Prince is an undisputed GOD, make no mistake, but his version is too… peppy.
I get what you mean. The musicality, the intensity, the singing, pretty much everything is better on O’Connor version. My main complaint is that I always thought the lyrics fit better with the tone of Prince’s version than Sinéad. The lyrics are very typical Prince and they feel a bit “silly” in comparison to her serious and sincere delivery. But I was told many times that I was wrong so eh…