Alanis Morissette

Alanis Morissette (Ottawa, 1974) reached fame at a very young age with the million-selling album Jagged Little Pill (Maverick, 1995), which followed three minor releases: Alanis (MCA, 1991), a disco album recorded at age 16, and Now Is The Time (MCA, 1992), which revealed her as a follower of Madonna.

After moving to Los Angeles, Morissette found the right dimension as a modern, alternative singer-songwriter, as well as a producer of caliber in Glen Ballard (who arranged most of the tracks) and a backing band composed of members of rock groups (including Dave Navarro and Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers). In her songs, the battle of the sexes takes on new shades, with her as an aggressive young girl challenging untrustworthy men. This explains the brash energy and punk spirit of many of her tracks, even though her success would come with the more lighthearted choruses that marked the start of a less turbulent phase.

The star of Jagged Little Pill (Maverick, 1995) is the sprite-like girl of Head Over Feet, a song built around her characteristic mood swings and one of her catchiest melodies, and especially Ironic, in which the tonal shifts are even more acrobatic and the chorus even more emotionally charged. In this small dramatic monologue, Morissette displays a prodigious sense of musical storytelling, able to speak, whisper, scream, and modulate with the same naturalness, and then ready to burst into a shrill teenage pitch.
Many of the songs, however, rely on the arrangements, which transform the halting melodies of All I Really Want into psychedelic fables. Another classic is You Oughta Know, a snarling ballad that erupts into a nursery-rhyme-like chorus and then into one of her modulated screams, punctuated by electric guitar. Even in this song, the instrumental fabric breaks apart in a psychedelic way between the surges. The slouchy shuffle of Hand In My Pocket presents her as a mature, independent Chrissie Hynde, yet her monologue retains the dramatic hue of a vulnerable girl.
Mary Jane instead presents her in the role of a melodramatic country singer, a part that suits her not at all, although it allows her to showcase vocal abilities that her ballads rarely require. The songs are orchestrated in an almost psychotic manner by producer Glen Ballard, who employs keyboards and guitars (played by various session musicians) in the most emotionally intense way possible, indulging in extreme timbres and rhythmic fractures, leaving the singer fully responsible for the melody. All her personalities explode in the maelstrom of frenzied voices that is You Learn.

The album sold 28 million copies over eight years and helped redefine the figure of the singer-songwriter.

In the film "Dogma", Morissette plays God, a God who does not speak and hops around like a child. Perhaps director Kevin Smith thus provided the most successful critical portrait of this unpretentious singer-songwriter, who merely sings her life without seeking deep meanings, yet precisely through this simplicity manages to find meanings that are almost metaphysical.

After the exotic Uninvited showed a more experimental side of the angry young girl who came to be known as the epitome of feminist angst, the generous, 17-song 71-minute collection Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie (Maverick, 1998) failed to generate any interest. Front Row is a repetition of the music and themes from the hit album, sprinkles of India (Thank U, one of her best songs) and Middle-East (The Couch) do not invigorate compositions that are fundamentally weak. Nonetheless, the album would go on to sell seven million copies in four years.

After playing God in Kevin Smith's film "Dogma", Morissette released her most personal album yet, Under Rug Swept (Maverick, 2002), the first one not to feature Ballard's production skills. But her confessions sound too pretentious and self-important, while retaining little or nothing of her childish exuberance. Only 21 Things That I Want in a Lover attempts to recover than energy, but falls flat, while Narcissus (reminiscent of Leona Naess' Charm Attack), Hands Clean and Precious Illusions display melodic flair but little content. At the Particular Time and Flinch display too much (self-indulgent) content but little melodic flair.

Alanis Morissette still refuses to face the evidence on So Called Chaos (Maverick, 2004): what she has to say is just not so interesting, so the music has got to be more relevant. Instead, she seems to really enjoy telling people the story of her life, and treats the music as an afterthought. Eight Easy Steps captures the attention for a few seconds, but Not All Me and Knees Of My Bees fail to inject (sonic) life into her (rather plain) stories.

The breakup concept Flavors Of Entanglement (Warner, 2008) tried to remedy the problem by hiring electronic-pop producer Guy Sigsworth, but the arrangements were so unrelated to the confessional lyrics and the songs were so weakly designed that one wondered why the artist didn't simply write a book about herself instead of turning it into music. That said a few songs do radiate enough emotion to make the cut into her canon: Versions of Violence, Tapes and the electronic Giggling Again for No Reason.

Now married and a mother, Morissette veered towards sanitized mainstream pop on Havoc and Bright Lights (2012). There is little to be salvaged here, barely the romantic ballad Til You and the solemn elegy Havoc.

After a long hiatus she released her ninth album, Such Pretty Forks in the Road (2020), her most mature album but certainly not her most groundbreaking. At its core are poignant mid-tempo piano meditations such as Her (the top vocal performance), the martial Pedestal, Diagnosis, and Losing the Plot. They are typically wrapped in string arrangements that are not always a good idea. The first three songs are actually more telling of her musical evolution and her emotional state: the solemn orchestral lied Smiling, the poppy and spunky Ablaze (the only rocking song on this album, a little reminiscent of the La's There She Goes) and the magniloquent, Jim Steinman-esque Reasons I Drink. Unfortunately, too many songs are pure filler or feel under-produced Nemesis deserved a more emotional crescendo instead of a disco-like drumming pattern), but there is enough variety and soul to make it her best album since her masterpiece.

She was more successful as the composer of the Broadway musical Jagged Little Pill (2020).