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Cover Art Sinead O'Connor
Gospel Oak EP
[Chrysalis]
Rating: 2.2

Sinead O'Connor once stood as the very definition of "strong woman." Known for her brilliant melodies and wonderful, 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. No more endless, repetitive, acoustic drone. Unfortunately, it's still more 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.

-Ryan Schreiber

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10.0: Indispensable, classic
9.5-9.9: Spectacular
9.0-9.4: Amazing
8.5-8.9: Exceptional; will likely rank among writer's top ten albums of the year
8.0-8.4: Very good
7.5-7.9: Above average; enjoyable
7.0-7.4: Not brilliant, but nice enough
6.0-6.9: Has its moments, but isn't strong
5.0-5.9: Mediocre; not good, but not awful
4.0-4.9: Just below average; bad outweighs good by just a little bit
3.0-3.9: Definitely below average, but a few redeeming qualities
2.0-2.9: Heard worse, but still pretty bad
1.0-1.9: Awful; not a single pleasant track
0.0-0.9: Breaks new ground for terrible
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