A little sooner than we realised, this week’s ‘Underrated’ focuses on another album, but this time by a completely different kind of female artist – Alanis Morissette’s ‘Under Rug Swept’.
When she exploded on to the international music scene in 1995, Alanis Morissette quickly became the poster girl for angry young women everywhere – a label she did not embrace. The former national teen star had previously released two pop albums in her native Canada before being signed to the Madonna owned record label Maverick, where she released what would go on to become the biggest selling album by a female artist in US chart history ‘Jagged Little Pill’. The angst ridden heavy rock-pop disc, written and produced by Morissette and hit maker Glen Ballard, was originally only made to sell enough copies so that Alanis could record a more polished second album for the label. All that changed when radio stations and MTV put ‘Pill’s first single ‘You Oughta Know’ in to heavy rotation and by the time the album’s biggest hit ‘Ironic’ was released, it had already sold nearly 20million copies world-wide. The ‘damage’ was done, Morissette would forever be referred to as the angry white female of her generation.
After an extensive world tour to promote ‘Jagged Little Pill’ Alanis began work on it’s follow-up, the intriguingly titled ‘Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie’. The album itself, co-written and produced again with Glen Ballard, and it’s title expressed Morissette’s dismay at the image portrayed of her by the media and attempts to shatter the idea that she was a one-trick-pony. First single ‘Thank U’, written after she had fallen ill while travelling in India, surprised critics and fans alike with it’s serene and peaceful sound. The video for the track also caused controversy and was unintentionally humorous, featuring Alanis walking naked around New York City, with only her trademark long brown hair giving her any modesty. Much of ‘SFIJ’ follows a similar theme to ‘Thank U’ of forgiveness and spiritual contemplation, a far cry the from the angst and frustration expressed in it’s predecessor. Also the exhausting 18 song track list and a lack of hook and chorus in some of the songs, as well as a formula that confused her most loyal fans, led to the album barely selling in excess of 5million copies. Alanis toured ‘SFIJ’ through much of 1999 and 2000 before taking timeout from the spotlight all together.
After nearly two years of legal disputes with Maverick, which led to Madonna herself begging Morissette not to leave the label, in February 2002 Alanis was finally able to release her 3rd international album ‘Under Rug Swept’. Preceded by the radio hit ‘Hands Clean’, ‘Under Rug Swept’ was Morissette’s most commercial sounding album to date, which is by no means a bad thing. Gone was the majority of personal contemplation expressed on the previous album, instead Alanis sticks to where she sounds most at home: dissecting her relationships.
At only 11 tracks long and full of sing-along hooks, ‘URS’ is a far more accessible album than ‘SFIJ’ and shows a maturity lacking in ‘Jagged Little Pill’. Interestingly, Alanis did not to work with Glen Ballard on ‘URS’, instead she wrote and produced every single song herself – a creative decision she has said happened organically. Morissette also had an interesting approach when it came to creating the songs that appeared on the album; she would write the song and lay down the vocals for it at the same time, if the process was taking longer than about 20 minutes the track would be discarded and she would start another. Alanis said it gave the disc a sense of urgency, another reason behind keeping the track list down to only 11 songs. This unique method helps keep ‘URS’ not only an incredible display of talent, but listenable from beginning to end.
Tracks like guitar-heavy opener ’21 things I want in a lover’ and the folk-y ‘Utopia’ show a fearlessness and sense of self which Alanis had not shown in her previous work. The scathing ‘Narcissus’ and the brilliant ‘So Unsexy’ seem almost custom built to appeal to a whole new generation of angry young women. Other stand out tracks include; the role-reversing lead single ‘Hands Clean’; an ode to the 9/11 fire-fighters ‘Surrender’ and the outstanding ‘Precious Illusions’. On ‘Under Rug Swept’ Alanis seems to have finally come to terms with her fame and herself. She embraces her quirkiness not only in her lyrics but in the arrangements and production of the songs.
Commercially however ‘Under Rug Swept’ was not a major success. Selling only half of what ‘Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie’ had, Maverick did not promote the album beyond 2 singles. Alanis took the disc on tour and released an EP ‘Feast On Scraps’ which consisted of songs recorded in the ‘URS’ sessions but not included on the final product. Morissette has gone on to release two more studio albums since ‘URS’ but neither have been huge commercial successes like ‘Jagged Little Pill’ became.
Neither a break-up album nor a collection of spiritual introspections, ‘Under Rug Swept’ stands alone as Alanis Morissette’s most creative and commercially appealing album to date. It is essentially a collection of great rock-pop songs, written by a truly unique artist. That originality may mean Morissette will never again have a commercial breakthrough like ‘Jagged Little Pill’ but I suspect she’s not worried either way. When you have the amount of talent and creativity Alanis does, something like record sales will never be a top concern. Frankly, she’s better off for it.
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