Annie Lennox is a paradoxical diva. Her voice is cool, regal and self-possessed, yet the majority of her songs express fear, rage, uncertainty and profound bitterness. The contradiction has become glaring now, with Lennox in a desperate funk: lonely, betrayed by men, worried about aging, fighting off suicidal thoughts. “I’ve seen too much/I know too much/I hurt too much/I feel too much,” she cries in “Ghosts in My Machine,” a song in which she also declares “Womankind was born for pain.” Throughout, her feminist self-determination is at war with her aching desire for a man. Produced by Glen Ballard (Alanis Morissette), the music is dominated by the same pounding pop-disco beats and thick textures that have defined all her records. But now, Lennox sounds like she’s been rubbed raw by life.

Download: “Dark Road,” “Coloured Bedspread”