Sinéad O'Connor once stood as the very definition of a strong woman. Known for her brilliant melodies and wonderfully spiteful lyrics, she was shocking, political and powerful. What happened? 1995's Universal Mother completed a gradual 360 degree turnaround in her behavior. The album was the complete antithesis of her previous work-- aside from "Fire on Babylon", it was sickeningly passive and diseased by boring music.

Gospel Oak one-ups Universal Mother in both positive and negative ways. On the positive side, the melodies on the record are clearly more thought-out and devoid of the endlessly repetitive, acoustic malaise the marked that record. Unfortunately, it's even more vomitously passive than Mother, with lyrics straight out of support group sessions. ("I am enough for myself/ I don't need anything else.") Now a seemingly untalented artist, O'Connor shows only wounds healed by therapy and no sign of battle scars.