** 1/2 SINEAD O’CONNOR, “Faith and Courage,” Atlantic

In her personal and professional lives, O’Connor has gone through an excruciating public search for comfort and faith, and the best thing about her first full-length album in six years (due in stores Tuesday) is that she gives us a song that suggests she has found much of what she has been searching for.

The opening track, “The Healing Room,” is an extraordinary expression of contentment and joy, and O’Connor’s vocal is deeply absorbing. Testifying that salvation is within everyone’s immediate grasp, O’Connor declares, “I have a universe inside me/Where I can go and spirit guides me.”

O’Connor expresses her message so strikingly in the track that the rest of the album is like a footnote. You can imagine her walking into her record company with “The Healing Room” and being reminded that she needs 12 more tracks to complete the album.

In assembling those other selections, O’Connor sometimes delivers as a writer (the humility of “The Lamb’s Book of Life” and the autobiographical recall of “Daddy I’m Fine”) and at other times as a singer (especially dealing with lingering wounds in “Jealousy” and “If U Ever”).

But none of the other numbers draws on all of O’Connor’s artistry to demand our attention in the manner of “The Healing Room” or the high points of her landmark early works.

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Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent). The albums are already released unless otherwise noted.