Alanis Morissette - Flavors of Entanglement

Genre pop Publisher Maverick Records External Links Alanis Morissette Website

After selling over 55 million albums internationally, charting numerous hits, and winning enough Grammy Awards to fill a fireplace mantle, what more could Alanis Morissette have left to do? After a four-year break from recording, it's refreshing to see that on her seventh album, Flavors of Entanglement, Morissette hasn't softened up, or lost the throbbing angst that made her work in the 1990s so memorable.

Whether it is continued relationship problems or just simply a predisposition to convey a sonic agony and a suffering that's become iconic with her music, Morissette delivers emotional anthems that strike the soul. Over the course of the album, she investigates the theme of relationships but most explicitly when she says, "I declare a moratorium on things relationships . . . / I do need a breather from the flavors of entanglement / I declare a full time-out from all things commitment."

While the subject matter may be familiar territory for the Canadian-born musician, Morissette does branch out a bit into experimental areas. If there were any question as to whether Morissette has simmered in the 13 years since Jagged Little Pill, she answers immediately with the opening track, "Citizen of the Planet," a syncopated, atmospheric thundering that highlights the two key elements of her style: power and control. Her voice is full and is more substantial and mature than it has been on past records, likely due to her time away from the studio. This break, however, has made her voice more resonant and vibrant, and her return more convincing.

The lead track may alienate her older fans who recall those catchy, light rock tunes of the 1990s, but the repeating chorus of "Citizen of the Planet" features a pounding guitar to match Morissette's bellowing vocals, and points more towards the hard feminine rock of Evanescence, than to the soft rock of her past.

However, her momentum is often derailed when Morissette ventures into the electronic realm. There are three overly electronic-based songs on the album, "Straitjacket," "Moratorium," and "Giggling Again for No Reason," with "Straitjacket" clearly being the worst song on the album, although the three tracks do progressively improve on one another. "Giggling" is by far her best use of the synthetic sounds, and by the end, Morissette nearly pulls off the dance-pop sound that Madonna, another outspoken woman of decades past, pulled off in her 1998 album, Ray of Light. Ironically enough, that album was also her seventh album and released by the same label as Flavors of Entanglement, Maverick Records.

Morissette may very well continue to venture down that same electronic highway and leave her acoustic guitar behind but hopefully not to the complete level of destruction displayed by Jewel in 2003 with her album, 0304. It would be a shame if Morissette's historic status as one of the bestselling female rock artists of all-time were used endlessly to sell feminine products such as razors, like Jewel's commercial song, "Intuition." Morissette has too much emotion in her music and lyrics to be wasted on synthesized electronic beats and product promotion.

Some of Morissette's best efforts land as beautiful melodies where her rough voice inspires a mystique that few other artists can muster, as prevalent in the sweepingly and saddening "Torch." On this second half of the album, she's traded in her anger for genuine emotion. Even those tracks where beauty is absent, play perfectly because, after all, the emotions she is portraying were never really supposed to be beautiful.

Fittingly enough for Morissette, the album that starts with a powerful and emotional aggression comes full circle, like the complete rise and fall of a failed relationship, which regains its stability and goes out on a promising note. Contrary to the song's title, "Incomplete" is perhaps the most optimistic track on the album, touting lyrics such as, "One day I'll be at peace \ I'll be enlightened \ And I'll be married with children."

It's a shame it takes such a great pain for an artist to produce at their best, but at least Morissette has found a subject and focus of which her art can blossom. While her legions of fans will no doubt give her latest album a listen, it's a worthwhile listen to those even remotely interested in her sound. Even though it seems like she has been on the music scene for some time, she is only 34-years-old, and her future holds endless musical possibilities, that is, as long as her heart can continually rebuild itself as a martyr to her music.