The last song, "Thank You for Hearing Me", was written about O'Connor's breakup with musician Peter Gabriel and features a trance-like backing track.

[13] In Hot Press, Bill Graham said that it is "definitely the record of an artist determined to restart, with a totally new set of basic principles".

[16] Noting the album had divided critical opinion, he suggested that its art-as-therapy approach resembled early solo work by John Lennon.

O'Connor explores "the uncharted depths" of "the real loveless family traumas" that mainstream, predominantly male, rock music tends to avoid, and Graham believes her journey is made more intense by her identity "as both a mother and a daughter".

[6] For Rolling Stone, Stephanie Zacharek characterized Universal Mother as "record making as therapy" and described it as tenderhearted and protective.