In the eight years since her last solo offering, Sharon Corr has braved more than her fair share of tumultuous times – including the breakdown of her marriage and the death of her father. With her new album, The Fool & The Scorpion, the Dundalk artist is pushing back against these seemingly insurmountable challenges, with an approach that sways between biting defiance and raw vulnerability.

The former comes first – with the title track opening the album with fearlessly personal, no-holds-barred lyrics. Her former husband’s current relationship with the Queen of Spain’s sister is addressed in lines that cut right to the heart of the matter: “The queen’s twisted sister, a chameleon.”

While not always as blatant, this kind of honesty bleeds throughout the album – which charts her journey in a manner that feels free-flowing, if not occasionally head-spinning. The arrangements, particularly in the first half of the album, bounce between genres, with subtle nods to her Celtic folk-pop roots. But Sharon is at her most convincing in the LP's quieter moments, when the production and instrumentation is stripped back, particularly on the gently jazz-influenced ‘Lend Me Your Shoulder’. The classic singer-songwriter inspirations are also notable, with ‘My Beautiful’ sounding like it was taken directly from the Joni Mitchell songbook.

Clearly, Sharon is refusing to bow to current trends or fashions here – instead choosing to prioritise her own truth, and her own emotional journey. That in itself feels like an act of defiance.