For much of her 10th album, it appears that Sinéad O’Connor has reinvented herself as Shania Twain. A far cry from the open-wounded pop of her early career, ‘Dense Water Deeper Down’ and ‘Your Green Jacket’ offer conformist, lightweight MOR country rock. The album title promises much in the way of forthright antagonism and the Jessie J hair she sports suggests some kind of ironic statement on the chart mainstream, but the content fails to deliver, save for two isolated moments. ‘The Voice of My Doctor’ channels a freeform passion more in line with Patti Smith than Shania. Here, O’Connor is a slave to her emotions rather than the tired structures elsewhere. Along with the raging rock of ‘Harbour,’ it’s a beacon of fierceness in a sea of bland.
Hayley Avron