Alanis Flavors of Entanglement
A Review of Morissette’s New Electronic CD Produced by Guy Sigsworth
Jun 11, 2008
Alanis Morissette comes full circle on her 7th studio album Flavors of Entanglement. Starting her career as Canada’s teen dance queen before filling vinyl with tales of betrayal and bad relationships, on her new album she merges both, showing there are more flavors to this Ottawa-born artist than anger.
Produced by Guy Sigsworth (Bjork, Imogen Heap, Seal) Flavors of Entanglement introduces a new direction for the singer-songwriter who blasted onto the world stage with her angry revenge track “You Oughta Know” back in 1995.
Replacing chunky guitars, alternative moods and banshee screams with swooshing layers of electronica, new age and chill, the paring of Sigsworth and Morissette seems so obvious, it’s a head-scratcher why these 2 haven’t worked together before.
Soaking in lyrics, no one could ever accuse Morissette of having nothing to say, her words now describe cloud floating ecstasy instead of slit-your-wrists pain. One listen to “Giggling Again for No Reason” where Morissette puts distance between herself and events in L.A. proves that despite the overall tone of the record devoted to the hardships of ending a much publicized break-up, she’s taking everything in stride, trying new things and finding reasons to laugh and dance.
Straitjacket
While most fans wouldn’t consider Morissette a dance–oriented artist, on tracks like the hard-edged thumper “Straitjacket” and the eastern-influenced trippy lounge track “Versions of Violence”, where she channels fellow Canadian act Delirium’s “Silence”, she delivers accessible electronica in the way Madonna made the genre mainstream on Ray of Light.
Morissette penned the record as a more inward exploration of the lessons the harsh end to her relationship taught her, with the exception of “Straitjacket” where she describes the mental agony of living with someone who drove her insane.
Despite the beauty of exploration on this electronic-tinged album, Morissette still sounds at home alone in front of a piano on "Not As We", a difficult song about starting over alone. First single “Underneath”, and reflective “Torch” mourn the good parts of relationships with identifiable lyrics such as “I miss your take on anything, and the music you would play”.
Incomplete Moratorium
On “Moratorium”, over a haunting beat and suckling electronics, Morissette acknowledges repeated patterns of jumping from one relationship to another and vows to give herself one year boy-friend free, singing “I declare a full time out from all things commitment”.
“Incomplete” closes the album on a positive note. Over simple guitar and bright keyboards Morissette ponders the future “One day, I’ll find relief, I’ll be arrived and I’ll be a friend to my friends who know how to be friends/ One day I’ll be at peace.”
While it would be great for Morissette to find the peace she so rightly deserves, for now she has delivered one of the greatest albums of her career. Born out of frustration and anger, this record is surprisingly bright and up-tempo, fun to listen and dance to, words that haven’t described Morissette’s music since her days as Canada’s answer to teen-pop.
Alanis Morissette’s Flavors of Entanglement is available on June 10.
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