While much is being made of Sinead O'Connor's media-ready fangs being spiritually yanked by the birth of her second child (a daughter, Roisin), it seems like rock's problem lass has merely taken to finessing her anger into a more refined, palatable passion for this brief six song outing.
Not one to step back from directness, Sinead appears so lyrically naked and open to scrutiny, ridicule, etc that even when laid gently against these cooing melodies and soothing tones, it's difficult to create a comfort zone around some of her material. Beginning with the soft "This Is To Mother You," she moves slowly from promise to atonement, from whisper to strident call and back. Within a mix of hushed guitars and a near Enya-like backdrop of pizzicato strings, Sinead is able to resolve momentarily her well known struggle with "Mother" into an earnest pledge of motherhood.
Following on with "I Am Enough For Myself" (inlaid with a recurring melody line that rings familiar) and "Petit Poulet," she offers faces of personal resolve and comfort respectively, that further cast her hard-baked willfulness into passages of a more positive, less calamitous strength.
Coming smack dab in the center, "4 My Love" plays easily as the record's centerpiece. Set to a stern march and a pretty braid of accordion and Spanish-flavoured guitar work, Sinead sings an ode to the co-author of her child and a restive keeper of the Irish flame. But the featured item in all of this has to her voice itself as it travels layered and unlayered across the track.
In the pop songstress category there are a few number of voices that contain character of such breadth. Eventually the Tori Amos/Sarah Mclachlan camp will have to be herded together, but beyond a statement of self-assurance and hard won composure, the Gospel Oak is another citing of a siren pre-eminent.
