pt-paratroopa's Full Review: Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie by Alanis Moris...
My journey with Alanis Morissette has been a long and strange one. Much like fellow mid-90's singer/songwriter starlet Sheryl Crow, Alanis Morissette's songs have been played on the radio since before I can remember. So while I was familiar with the choruses of songs such as "Hand in My Pocket" and "Ironic," it's important to keep in mind that I was seven years old when Alanis' debut album in the United States, the infamous Jagged Little Pill, was released. When Under Rug Swept was released in 2002 and I was a few years older, I was finally able to recognize and appreciate the woman who had created these songs I've known since childhood.
As far as the reaches of Morissette's real discography go, it's easy to take 2002's Under Rug Swept and 2004's So-Called Chaos, despite their overuse of Alanisisms, (speaking half-backwards Engrish and applying accentation where there is none,) and appreciate them as well-produced albums that relied on words from a writer who had matured from a woman scorned into a woman in love. Jagged Little Pill still stands as her most raw album, combining the nice production of her latest two albums with the rage and frustration of an independent woman. So indeed, Pill, Swept, and Chaos all possess strong writing and production wrapped in pretty packages that are easy to swallow.
Enter 1998's Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, the most polarizing album in Alanis' catalogue. After Pill had sold no less than a bazillion copies and spawned half a dozen monster singles, it was natural for fans to greatly anticipate the follow-up. From what I can tell, listeners are split into two main groups. The first group includes the Pill fans that were unwilling to accept Alanis' new "weirdo" direction, expecting the accessibility and mainstream arrangements found on her debut. Her psychobabble was not appreciated, nor was a 73-minute, 17-track, 12-syllable-titled monster that was only able a produce one hit single. A good portion of Alanis' fan base promptly abandoned her, making a 3x platinum album look like it suffered from the sophomore slump.
The people in the second group of Alanis' fans are probably the ones that would follow her into the depths of hell. While most casual fans of Morissette would agree that Pill was her best work, the ones that appreciate Alanis to the point of obsession would pull for Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, (henceforth referred to as "Junkie" for my sanity.) Alanis made a name for herself as "that angry white chick that swore a couple times," but some of her fanbase was ready to move past the shock value of "Are you thinking of me when you f--- her?" And as Alanis had begun to move on and mature, she provided Junkie, a 70-minute therapy session that was more vocally interesting than "Jesus, woman, stop screeching," and more lyrically varied than "oh, man, Alanis wants to kill a guy again." While I still greatly appreciate Pill, lately I've been leaning toward Junkie as my favorite Morissette album for it's intelligence, schizophrenia, weirdness, and wonderfulness.
That's not to say you'll be able to appreciate this album on first, or second, or thirtieth listen. My first review for Epinions, written almost three years ago, handed this album 5 stars simply because the name of the artist on the cover was Alanis Morissette. At the time, I really only needed this disc for the "accessible" songs, which coincidentally were all released as singles: "Thank U," "Unsent," and "Joining You." While these three songs are all lovely, it just so happens that the songs I didn't get when I was 14 are now the songs I love at 17. As far as her discography goes, Junkie is still the most challenging album, and you can't just put it on for background noise. You need mature as a person to really appreciate how she writies her words about life, how the songs suddenly seem to get better with age, how she's never done anything else like this one. At least that's how it was for me.
"Front Row," is one of those aforementioned weird songs, and I couldn't think of any other way to start Junkie. At first listen, "Front Row" is an incoherent rant that comes off like the ultimate stream of consciousness song, and the very trippy rock production sort of implies that Alanis was on a lot of bad drugs while putting this circus music together. Incidentally, when I see the cover of this album, I always envision this song (and "Would Not Come"): that mouth looks like it's just chatting away, (or laughing,) without end. And that's appropriate on this song, because while one Alanis will be singing the chorus, a second Alanis will be singing an entirely different verse under her! The song, whichs puts a different spin on the relationship song found on Pill, is lyrically strong, and I've always laughed at how she had to clarify in the liner notes that New Jersey was "(too far)," while listing it as reason for breaking up. Great song and great start.
Following the mess that is "Front Row," the album heads into a one-two punch of two of its more friendly songs. "Baba," combining a gritty alternative rock production with lyrics questioning the evils of religion in the underdeveloped world, wouldn't sound too badly out of place on her other albums. As noted, Alanis took a trip to India before the making of this album, and "Baba" is the song most obviously inspired by her time meditating on mountaintops. At one point she breaks into a Middle Eastern-esque chant, and overall the song could be paralleled to Pill's "Forgiven." Alanis' journey to India also pops up in the refrain of "Thank U," which, despite having the Hooked on Phonics title-spelling, and, at times, completely obscure lyrics, ("How 'bout them transparent dangling carrots?",) is a well produced and well sung number that is charming and catchy. It's easy to see why this song became the only real hit of the album; the drum loops on this song are damn addictive, by the way.
"Are U Still Mad?" suffers from the same loser spelling that "UR" and "Thank U" do, but besides using "U," all three songs happen to be good. It's almost like Alanis is playing role reversal from Pill with this song, because, after explaining to us her sins, (Are you still mad that I... [did something empowering]?,) she realizes that, yes, of course he is still mad. While this song's foundation is a total ripoff of "Uninvited," it eventually blossoms into a complex sounding track, and Alanis' words make her recycling forgivable. "Sympathetic Character" is the other blaringly weird song on here, as it combines harsh-sounding guitars with Alanis' screeching, layering of herself, and deliberately rhythmic singing of the chorus. It'd sure as hell scare off anybody who was expecting "Hand in My Pocket" as she growls YOU WERE MY VERY OWN SYMPATHETIC CHARACTER while describing the fear and frustration of having to deal with an angry partner, (especially when she admits she had just as much anger as he did.)
While most rock stars are concerned about where their next million is coming from, or how their fans will react to their actions, or how many records they're selling, Alanis seems like a much more real person on "That I Would Be Good." Quite simply, she wrote this song in a closet when her house was full of people, an answer to her own question: what do you want? There's a definite intimacy to this song, from the words such as, that I would be good even if I lost my hair and my youth, to Alanis' fragile-sounding flute playing, to the buzz that was recorded in the studio during the recording of the vocals. Both this song and "The Couch" were songs that I was just too young to understand when I was fourteen; "The Couch" especially so, as I always cited it as my least favorite track. While the song starts out ambient, it continues to pick up steam and density as Alanis dives into her storytelling mode. Yes, storytelling: Alanis, documenting a two-sided story, takes on the role of a middle-aged man and his psychiatrist, climaxing with You are wise, you are warm, you are courageous, you are big, and I love you more now than I ever have in my whole life.
I can still remember listening to "Can't Not" and really liking it for the first time; it was suddenly a hell of lot better than I ever remembered. This was a song that Alanis wrote during her Jagged Little Pill tours, so it does seem slightly more similar to Pill than the rest of the album. The coolest parts to me were always: A) the bridge, which adds a string sample to the mix and a male backing voice that harshly spits who do you think you are?, (among other lines,) right before Alanis sings the line(s) herself; B) The ending of the song where Alanis put her voice through an echo-maker(TM) and refrains why do you [verb] me? why do you [verb] me still?. Otherwise, the song is a bit on the slow side, using another recognizable drum loop and what sounds like sticks hitting each other, making for a Eastern effect. I've always been more drawn to the words of this song, loving the incredible realness found in a lyric such as Would I be whining if I said I needed a hug?.
"UR" was a song that always bored me, quite frankly, until I started to realize that sometimes words were more important than music. So she might be putting herself on a bit of pedestal, but she's not afraid to defend herself, (Do you realize, guys, that I was born in 1974?,) or even become self-deprecating, (naive/terrified, you are,) if need be. Even as far the music goes, I realize now that it is quite pretty, and the chorus is a lot more melodic than I ever recall. Mostly importantly, the song is made fairly cute because it is the first (of two) times Alanis pulls out her harmonica. "I Was Hoping" is one my all-time favorite Alanis Morissette songs, combining a trance-ish hip hop production with another stab at her stream of consciousness mode. It's just about the perfect song: musically, the style change/beat makes the song flawless; Alanis' vocals really bring out the story, not afraid to elongate the title or quickly throw in a few extra words; lyrically, "I Was Hoping," has some of my favorite words ever...
I too once thought that I was owed something...
I too thought that when proved wrong I lose somehow.
I too once thought life was cruel...
...I said do you believe we fundamentally judgmental? Fundamentally evil?
Even more surprising is that "One" doesn't completely suck after following the greatness of "I Was Hoping." Actually, musically, the songs sound similar, except "One" favors a darker dance beat. This was one of my early favorites on the album, mainly because I found the repetition of the title to be really catchy for some reason. Toward the end, the song gets a little schizophrenic with ten different Alanis wailing different things, but it sort of add to the theme of the lyrics: because we can all be jealous, pretentious, threatened hypocrites, we're all "one," joined together by our common human emotions. The opening to "Would Not Come," Alanis doing her best cackle, again reminds me of the crazy mouth on the cover. This song is great lyrically, with Alanis realizing that all of her vices, (shopping, drinking, sex, masturbation, eating,) cannot bring her true happiness. Musically, the song can get a little tiring, as Alanis uses her voice in one of the rare instances that happens to bug even me; she wails and whines "Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiii would [topic] and still it wouldnotcome." Unfortunately, this refrain is the chorus of the song. And it's repeated a lot in four minutes.
"Unsent," the second single and a minor hit, is obviously a song that's particularly close to Alanis' heart; it's composed of little more than five private letters to her previous boyfriends. Backed musically by acoustic guitar and little else, Alanis seems happy to reminiscence over her past relationships: the reasons why she fell in love with these men, how they each inspired and affected her personally, and how she'd like to see them all again. Just to make things even more charming, Alanis closes off with the second (of two) harmonica solos. "So Pure" seems to be a fan favorite, but I've never been able to get overly excited about it. It's cool to see Alanis on such a happy sugar rush, but the production of the chorus just seems a little too slick and easy for my tastes. Still, I have to love the song, if only because it actually uses the words Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie together in a sentence. There's also the fact that the first lyric is You from New York... you are so relevant. Her little "Wow!" as the song fades is amusing because it's like she's going "Hey, did I really just do this song?!"
Back in 2002, I thought "Joining You" was one of the coolest songs on the album because it was both catchy, (in an alternative way, if that makes an sense whatsoever,) and it wasn't afraid to really, um, "rock out." Indeed, after an album of lovely acoustic melodies and dense and murky dance beats, a straight up, dark-sounding "rock" song is a welcome change musically. This is another song with lyrics showing that Alanis really "got" the human mind, at least before she became preoccupied with writing Shakespearean sonnets; here, she speaks to a childhood friend that's been contemplating committing suicide. To make her friend feel like his thoughts are only human, Alanis admits that if people were identified only by, for example, their futures, or their successes and indignities, obsessions and paranoias, she wouldn't mind joining him in his suicide. At least by offering her friendship, Alanis is proving that at least one person can look past all these "traits" and befriend a person for who they really are.
There are seventeen tracks on this album. It takes all the way until track 16 for a song to really fail in holding my attention whenever I listen to it, regardless of the circumstance. "Heart of the House" is by default my least favorite song on this album because of that. But even then, it's not a bad song, as it returns to the pretty acoustic sound. Hell, by the time the chorus comes around, I feel like Alanis is ready to start ballroom dancing or something similarly elegant. This is a dedication to the unappreciated "neck" of the household, the mother, and it is the song that gave Alanis fans one of their favorite expressions - "tinkerbell tendencies." Overall, for the "worst" track on an album, you can do a hell of a lot worse than this. As far as the final tracks of Alanis' albums go, "Your Congratulations" is second only to "Everything" from So-Called Chaos. Musically, it doesn't get much more interesting than some repetitive piano notes, but listening to Alanis stretch out the song's title, especially how she sounds like she's crying on the last syllable, is by far one of the most memorable moments of the entire album. It was your approval I wanted. Your congratulations. And it's on that haunting note that the album closes.
In 1995, Alanis Morissette released a song about how much she hated one of her ex-boyfriends, and it became really easy to pidgeonhole her as a whiny man-hating feminist. The release of Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie exposed such comparisons as unfair. On this album, Alanis somehow seems even more human than she did on Jagged Little Pill, (which, while very realistic, settled mainly on the side of "angst," for most of the time.) We get to see Alanis at her happiest moments, ("Thank U," "So Pure,") her most reflective moments, ("That I Would Be Good," "Unsent,") her stabs at psychoanalysis, ("Joining You," "The Couch," "I Was Hoping,") and her dedications to the people she loves ("Heart of the House".) All these different emotions make her seem much more three dimensional than a good number of musicians. She's angry, happy, depressed, thankful, puzzled, and, on this album at the very least, she's not afraid to throw everything out there. It's quite clear she was out to do what she wanted, and if that meant boggling the minds of her fan base, she was satisfied if she at least got her poitn across. And, even now, more Morissette fans are going back and thinking, "Hm, what was so unlikable about this album that I couldn't get into more than three songs a few years ago?" I think she's starting to win all over again.
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