Alanis Morissette

By Josh Bell

Thursday, June 12, 2008 | midnight

What to expect from the new Alanis Morissette album? Judging from her last few releases, some tasteful guitar-pop topped with overwrought lyrics about self-empowerment. Yep, here we go on opening track “Citizen of the Planet” with hippie-dippy platitudes about unity sung over a vaguely Middle Eastern-sounding beat and a chorus of crunchy guitars. Then she’s admonishing people to be more open and loving on “Underneath,” the clear radio single. It’s kind of catchy, but come on, Alanis. Your fiancé dumped you and is now engaged to Scarlett Johansson. Where’s the woman who wrote “You Oughta Know”? Where’s the righteous, hyper-articulate anger?

Hold up, what’s this now? “Straitjacket” is layered with electronic sounds like something out of Ray of Light-era Madonna. “I don’t know who you’re talking to with such fucking disrespect,” Morissette sneers. Now that’s more like it. “This shit’s making me crazy,” she sings as the beat kicks in, and it’s a seriously insistent groove. This is ... perhaps her best song in years? Maybe producer Guy Sigsworth, who actually did work with Madonna around her Ray of Light period, has kicked Morissette’s ass back into gear. “Versions of Violence” is another cool electro jam, although it’s meditative rather than angry.

And then … oh boy. “Not as We” is as treacly a piano ballad as Morissette has ever recorded. She’s dealing with her break-up with such sickening maturity. It’s mostly downhill from here. She declares a “Moratorium” on relationships; she catalogs all the things she misses about her ex on “Torch”; eventually she’s “Giggling Again for No Reason.” Ugh. There are a few more decent beats, but the energy never returns. What a wasted opportunity.

The bottom line: **1/2