Following the end of her marriage to longtime collaborator and guitarist in 2015, Irish vocalist returns with her fifth studio album, 2017's dark-hued . Produced by acclaimed roots icon , finds transforming both her sound and image with a suitably haunting and soulful set of songs rife with heartache. Gone are her rockabilly-tinged grooves (and trademark pompadour), replaced with a ballad-heavy, reverb-soaked aesthetic and dark brown -style shag, all of which befits her post-divorce attitude of mourn and move on. If her earlier albums matched '50s rock bounce with '80s new wave attitude, then is pure '60s songcraft, a combination of dusky Americana and vintage British soul. In that sense, it brings to mind similarly inclined albums by artists like , and . frames 's throaty, highly resonant croon with a wall of sound punctuated by dreamy guitars (courtesy of and ), horns ( ), booming low-end bass (via ), sparkling piano ( ), B-3 organ ( ), and swirls of ueber-dramatic -level drums ( ). It's rootsy enough to sound familiar to longtime fans, but also enough of a departure from her heretofore pulpy, leopard-print-and-high-heels rock & roll vibe that some listeners may take a moment to wistfully mark the change. Helping aid the transition and lending their support are several guest performers, including legendary guitar virtuoso and longtime champion , who supplies his bluesy reassurance on the languid anthem "Black Tears." Similarly, TV host and former pianist shows up on the gospel-infused "When It's My Time." That said, it's 's voice that sticks with you, along with the yearning pathos that she conveys throughout all of . Thankfully, rather than a complete downer, the album is peppered with moments of cathartic pop joy, as on the anthemic, Brill Building-worthy "Should've Been You" and the swaggering -do-Southern-soul number "Leave Me Lonely." Even the rambling acoustic folk closer, "The Girl I Used to Be," in which draws parallels between her younger self and her daughter, strikes a tone of poignant, bittersweet joy. She sings "Now I'm grown with a child of my own/And I hope to god on high/That these are the days she thinks upon/As the best days of her life." It's a direct comment on her own troubles as a divorced parent, but also one imbued with poetry and a universally relatable theme of renewal. In fact, while most of the songs here do read explicitly like weighing in on the end of her relationship, they never feel uncomfortably personal, and the overall album plays as a paean to heartache itself. Ultimately, while the album may not hit with the rockabilly wallop that marked the best of her previous work, is nonetheless a sophisticated and gorgeously rendered album. ~ Matt Collar