Sinéad O’Connor’s fourth studio album came on the heels of her disappointing third effort and the firestorm of controversy surrounding her pope-bashing Saturday Night Live appearance. And while 1994’s Universal Mother didn’t do well enough commercially to make it a proper comeback, it was certainly an artistic triumph.

A subdued and intimate collection of mostly piano-based ballads, Universal Mother was O’Connor’s most personal album to date. As she told the music magazine Mojo, the album “was the first attempt to try to expose what was really underneath a lot of the anger of the other records.”

That meant songs about her son, her abusive mother, former lovers, and Irish politics. Today’s song is about her friend and piano teacher, on whom she had an unrequited crush.

The album’s two covers are highlights. First up is a delicate version of Nirvana’s ‘All Apologies,’ followed by a sweeping take on Phil Coulter’s ‘Scorn Not His Simplicity,’ a song he wrote for his son, who has Down Syndrome.

Beautiful work, all of it, and the album that hits hardest in light of O’Connor’s passing.