The Toronto Sun September 18, 1994, Sunday, Final EDITION SINEAD LAYS BARE HER SOUL JOHN SAKAMOTO SINEAD O'CONNOR Universal Mother With recent reports that O'Connor has been admitted to a London hospital for a combination of substance abuse and psychiatric treatment, any criticism of her "comeback" album - her first collection of original material since the Saturday Night Live Pope-bashing incident turned a huge portion of the public against her - becomes a highly sensitive issue. Fortunately, I've rarely been, ahem, encumbered by the burden of sensitivity (as many of you have pointed out over the years), so .... Universal Mother is an excruciatingly confessional album that draws virtually all of its power from O'Connor's unblinking willingness to spill her guts. John I Love You, My Darling Child, Thank You For Hearing Me - these are all songs that simply lay out her innermost feelings, with very little artistry. (For confirmation, compare any of O'Connor's own songs with her cover of Phil Coulter's stunning Scorn Not His Simplicity.) With the exception of a soggy, enervating version of Nirvana's All Apologies, the results are undeniably powerful and fascinating, especially if you read the lyrics (e.g. "I'm fragile," "There's only one way to be free," etc.) as a desperate cry for help. To get that kind of return from Universal Mother, however, requires that you have as deep an emotional investment in O'Connor as O'Connor does herself.