After two albums of covers, Sinéad O’Connor released her first collection of original material in seven years with 2007’s Theology.

The album, which as the title suggests is focused on religious themes, is split into two discs: Dublin Sessions and London Sessions. Each disc contains recordings of the same 10 songs, with the Dublin sessions entirely acoustic and the London sessions featuring a full band and string section. The first disc adds a 45-second, a cappella sung prayer, while the second features a cover version of ‘I Don’t Know How to Love Him’ from Andrew Lloyd Weber’s Jesus Christ Superstar.

O’Connor didn’t do herself any favors commercially by packaging the album this way, not that she ever cared much about her sales. Theology is especially ill-served by leading off with the acoustic disc, which sounds like a collection of demos rather than a proper studio album.

Disc Two is a much more rewarding listen. The tracks are given depth and texture by the fuller instrumentation, and while they don’t live up to the songs on her best albums they are still quite good. At the very least, the order of the sides should have been switched, with the “Dublin” recordings offered up as a bonus disc.

Regardless of the mistakes made in the album’s composition, Theology is a nice return to songwriting for O’Connor. It leaves me curious as to what direction she went on her final two releases.