Universal Mother

In 1993, O'Connor started taking singing lessons in the style of bel canto. This inspired her to "talk about the things that [she] really wanted to talk about".{{Cite book|last=O'Connor|first=Sinéad|title=Rememberings|year=2021|pages=}}

The first track, "Germaine", is a recording of feminist Germaine Greer speaking about cooperation as an alternative to patriarchy.{{Cite web|last1=September 16|first1=Evelyn McDonnell Updated|last2=EDT|first2=1994 at 04:00 AM|title=Universal Mother|url=https://ew.com/article/1994/09/16/universal-mother/|access-date=2 November 2021|website=EW.com}}

"Am I a Human?" is by O'Connor's son Jake, recorded when he was a child. "'Famine'" (the quotes are hers) is a hip hop track about the Great Famine and how it impacted Ireland.

The last song, "Thank You for Hearing Me", was written about O'Connor's breakup with musician Peter Gabriel and features a trance-like backing track. The majority of the songs on the album use "delicate piano-based arrangements".{{Cite magazine|last1=Zacharek|first1=Stephanie|date=6 October 1994|title=Universal Mother|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/universal-mother-193409/|access-date=2 November 2021|magazine=Rolling Stone}}

O'Connor painted the cover art, which was inspired by a rebirthing session she experienced as well as the song "All Babies".

Billboard magazine wrote that O'Connor made "a broad thematic statement about pain, grief, love, and redemption, and has swaddled that statement in a musical soundscape, at once delicate and lush, that evokes the dreamy landscape of a lilting Irish lullaby. There's a wolf in these twilight woods, of course, as O'Connor wraps her mesmerizing voice around tales of abuse (the simmering 'Red Football') and seemingly unbearable pain ('Tiny Grief Song'). The most topical number is the rap rant 'Famine'-which borrows from everything from 'Fiddler on the Roof' to 'Eleanor Rigby'. But there also are daubs of pure, timeless beauty present, as in the unabashedly gentle 'John I Love You' and 'My Darling Child'. It is on the shoulders of these haunting numbers that O'Connor's message—and ultimately her album—rests."

In Hot Press, Bill Graham said that it is "definitely the record of an artist determined to restart, with a totally new set of basic principles". Noting the album had divided critical opinion, he suggested that its art-as-therapy approach resembled early solo work by John Lennon. O'Connor explores "the uncharted depths" of "the real loveless family traumas" that mainstream, predominantly male, rock music tends to avoid, and Graham believes her journey is made more intense by her identity "as both a mother and a daughter". Listening to the album can be "unnerving", as O'Connor "can still sing like an angel but she also sometimes writes lyrics like an emotional dyslexic". Its predominant style is "a bare chamber-folk".{{Cite web|url=https://www.hotpress.com/music/universal-mother-482593|title=Universal Mother|first=Bill|last=Graham|website=Hotpress.com|access-date=7 January 2022}}

Melody Maker named it "her best album to date" and "one of the albums of the year". Alan Jones from Music Week wrote, "Once more into the confessional for this resilient talent and, it has to be said, once more she comes up with the goods." For Rolling Stone, Stephanie Zacharek characterized Universal Mother as "record making as therapy" and described it as tenderhearted and protective.

{{Track listing

| headline = Universal Mother track listing

| extra_column = Producer(s)

| title1 = Germaine

| writer1 = Germaine Greer

| extra1 =

| length1 = 0:38

| title2 = Fire on Babylon

| writer2 = O'Connor, John Reynolds

| extra2 = O'Connor, John Reynolds, Tim Simenon

| length2 = 5:11

| title3 = John I Love You

| writer3 = O'Connor

| extra3 = O'Connor, John Reynolds, Phil Coulter

| length3 = 5:31

| title4 = My Darling Child

| writer4 = O'Connor

| extra4 = O'Connor, John Reynolds, Coulter

| length4 = 3:09

| title5 = Am I a Human?

| writer5 = Jake Reynolds

| extra5 = Jake Reynolds

| length5 = 0:24

| title6 = Red Football

| writer6 = O'Connor

| extra6 = O'Connor, John Reynolds, Coulter

| length6 = 2:48

| title7 = All Apologies

| writer7 = Kurt Cobain

| extra7 = O'Connor

| length7 = 2:37

| title8 = A Perfect Indian

| writer8 = O'Connor

| extra8 = O'Connor, John Reynolds, Coulter

| length8 = 4:22

| title9 = Scorn Not His Simplicity

| writer9 = Coulter

| extra9 = O'Connor, Coulter

| length9 = 4:26

| title10 = All Babies

| writer10 = O'Connor

| extra10 = O'Connor, John Reynolds

| length10 = 4:29

| title11 = In This Heart

| writer11 = O'Connor

| extra11 = O'Connor, John Reynolds, Coulter

| length11 = 3:11

| title12 = Tiny Grief Song

| writer12 = O'Connor

| extra12 = O'Connor, John Reynolds, Coulter

| length12 = 1:56

| title13 = "Famine"

| writer13 = O'Connor, Clayton, Simenon, John Reynolds, Lennon, McCartney

{{cite web|url=https://www.apra.com.au/cms/worksearch/worksearch.srvlt?action%3DworkSearch# |title=Works Search |access-date=23 May 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141021015339/https://www.apra.com.au/cms/worksearch/worksearch.srvlt?action=workSearch |archive-date=21 October 2014 }}

| extra13 = O'Connor, John Reynolds, Simenon

| length13 = 4:56

| title14 = Thank You for Hearing Me

| writer14 = O'Connor, John Reynolds

| extra14 = O'Connor, John Reynolds, Simenon

| length14 = 6:25

}}

Note: "Famine" quotes the song "Eleanor Rigby" by the Beatles.

Credits adapted from the album's liner notes.{{cite AV media notes|title=Universal Mother|others=Sinéad O'Connor|publisher=Ensign. Chrysalis|year=1994|type=booklet|id=CDP 530549}}

• Sinéad O'Connor – vocals, piano
• John Reynolds – drums, programming
• Dave Clayton – keyboards, programming
• Marco Pirroni, Ivan Gilliland – guitar
• Tim Simenon – programming
• Nicky Scott, Matthew Seligman, Clare Kenny – bass
• Phil Coulter – piano, keyboards, backing vocals
• John O'Cane – cello
• Voice Squad – backing vocals
• Irish Chamber Orchestra – strings

{{certification Table Top|caption=Certifications and sales for Universal Mother}}

{{certification Table Entry|type=album|region=Austria|artist=Sinead|title=Universal Mother|award=Gold| relyear=1994|certyear=2001}}

{{certification Table Entry|type=album|region=Canada|artist=Sinead|title=Universal Mother|award=Gold| relyear=1994|certyear=1994}}

{{certification Table Entry|type=album|region=United Kingdom|artist=Sinead|title=Universal Mother|award=Gold| relyear=1994|certyear=1995|id=7899-3468-2}}

{{certification Table Entry|type=album|region=United States|artist=Sinead|title=Universal Mother|nocert=true| relyear=1994|salesamount=217,000|salesref={{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-AkEAAAAMBAJ&q=sinead+universal+mother+1,5+million&pg=PA92|title=Sinead O'Connor Starts Anew|publisher=Billboard|page=92|first=Melinda|last=Newman|date=11 July 1998|access-date=7 June 2019}}}}

{{Certification Table Bottom}}

{{Reflist}}

{{Sinéad O'Connor}}

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Category:1994 albums

Category:Sinéad O'Connor albums

Category:Albums produced by Tim Simenon

Category:Albums produced by Phil Coulter

Category:1990s in Irish music