ALANIS
MORISSETTE
‘THE COLLECTION’
Born
and raised in
Morissette
says she considered including some of her earliest recorded work here, but
ultimately decided that it was when she came to
THE COLLECTION documents
the seven-time Grammy Award winner’s stunning and enduring work since that key
moment: from the massive worldwide success of jagged little pill--her Grammy-winning 1995 debut for
Maverick Records that introduced her to the world and remains one of the most
popular recordings in music history--through her eclectic and acclaimed
subsequent albums, from Supposed
Former Infatuation Junkie (1998), MTV Unplugged (1999), Under
Rug Swept (2002), So-Called
Chaos (2004) and jagged
little pill acoustic (2005). She hand-picked all the material which
includes songs from Alanis’ Feast On Scraps DVD/EP (2002), plus her
contributions to the soundtracks for CITY OF ANGELS, DOGMA (in
which she played the role of God in the Kevin Smith-directed film) and DE-LOVELY
(in which she acted), as well as a song she recorded for THE PRAYER CYCLE
album.
The
17 tracks on THE COLLECTION
encompass a wide range of music, from the bracing rock of “You Oughta Know”
and “Eight Easy Steps”; to an epic, string-laden rock ballad like
“Uninvited”; to the alluring Eastern stylings of “Thank U”; to the
confessional pop of “Hands Clean” and “Everything”; and to the
irresistible dance rhythms of “Crazy,” Alanis’
newly recorded version of the Seal classic.
When
she listens back to the work she’s collected here, the critically acclaimed
singer, songwriter and musician found herself pleased with where she’s been.
“I have to say--and I say this with total humility—that I love my songs,”
Morissette notes with a laugh. “I feel really connected to them. Ryan, my
fiancée, asked me the other night, `What is that like, just playing back your
own music and actually enjoying it?’ The truth is that I do write songs that I
enjoy, so I have no problem listening back to them. Seeing everything in one
place is exciting on one hand, and also horrifying because of course I wanted to
include every single song I’ve ever written. But I’m happy with THE
COLLECTION because I think this is a really great combination of
songs that are really familiar and those that are my personal favorites that
some people might not know. I think it’s a nice balance of that.”
In
the end, Morissette says she views sharing her songs as a sort of public yet
deeply personal offering. “I have a commitment to get on tape exactly where I
am at that particular time whenever I write a song,” she explains. “When I
listen to this collection with some objectivity I think, ‘Wow, this is someone
who is really committed to expressing themselves.’ I don’t think I would
continue doing this in the public eye--and all that goes along with that
life--if my purpose for doing it hadn’t adjusted along the way. When I was a
teenager, I was doing it for so many different reasons. Over the last few years
it’s become clear that the only reason I’d continue doing it is because it
has become a social act, even an act of service, for me. I can share my personal
experience and thereby support people in their personal journey--wherever they
may be at. Otherwise I’d just sing songs in the shower and take up
gardening.”
Gathered
and displayed here from the personal
--David
Wild, October 2005
CUT-BY-CUT
THANK U:
This song is near and dear to my heart because it really encapsulates the place
I was in when I returned from
HEAD OVER FEET:
One of my favorite songs from jagged
little pill, and it would be remiss for me not to have a jagged
little pill song early--I don’t want to be ignoring an album that
introduced me to everybody in a very fierce way. This, as well as most other
songs, seemed to write itself in about 30 minutes.
EIGHT EASY STEPS: This one to me is one
of the funniest experiences I have had of busting my own chops in song. It’s
sarcastic and unflinching and, yes, somewhat embarrassing. Only someone with a
sense of humor and some levity about themselves could write some of the songs
I’ve written--including some songs on jagged
little pill, though that humor may have been missed by some people.
EVERYTHING: That song had to be on THE COLLECTION because it’s one of the most recent or most
current snapshots of where I’m at right now. My dogged journey to
return to wholeness has grown ever more intense over the last three years. I’m
very inspired and fueled to stay as awake and
as I can on this journey.
CRAZY: It was a song that I was obsessed with as a teenager, and
during the Gap campaign, the lovely folks there asked me to submit a list of my
favorite songs and Seal’s song was one of the first I chose because it brings
back so many memories of my teenaged years. The main line, “You’re never
going to survive/Unless you get a little crazy” is to me one of the simplest
yet most profound statements. Seal and I exchanged sweet emails when I was about
to cover his song.
IRONIC: The most ironic thing about “Ironic” is that it’s not
chock full of ironies. That song to me is the least precious song I’ve ever
written or collaborated on. That was the first song on jagged little pill that Glen [Ballard] and I wrote and at
that point I had not yet begun writing 100% autobiographically. We were just
wetting our whistle as collaborators, trying successfully to amuse each other.
PRINCES FAMILIAR: I just see so many relationships breaking up when
there’s the inevitable time
of conflict. For me I see that as the beginning--not the end--in a lot of cases.
This song is my beseeching the child’s father (and ultimately, parent)
because I know how we tend to be attracted to that which is familiar when we
start choosing romantic partners. It’s about going back to the horse rather
than cutting off the cart. It’s
about going back to that place when the blueprint to our psyches was being
formed, and having a greater understanding of why we choose the partners we do.
YOU LEARN: This song captures how I felt when I moved to
SIMPLE TOGETHER: This is the saddest song that I’ve ever
written--hands down. There’s simplicity and directness to it--the most
distilled version of sadness I’ve ever put into a song.
YOU OUGHTA KNOW: Born and raised in a society that encouraged me to
suppress my anger--to say the least--I have always felt while writing a song, or
journaling or creating any form of art, there is a green light for me to express
the most reactive, the most embarrassing, devastated, wounded and vulnerable
parts of me in a very safe and non-destructive way. This wasn’t the first time
I’d done it, but it connected with people to say the least, and it also
offered a green light to other people. I believe a suppression of rage is a
violence against one’s self. And I’ve been excited to express my rage in
healthy ways over the last decade.
THAT I WOULD BE GOOD: I wrote
that song in my closet. There were a lot of people in my house and so I closed
the closet door, lit a candle, and wrote “That I Would Be Good” in about
fifteen minutes. Basically it was when I was in the pressure cooker that was
following up jagged little pill
and that song became a kind of mantra or meditation that helped me through the
pressure.
SISTER BLISTER: A very unspoken conversation I’ve come across in
the feminist circles that I find myself in often--a rarely discussed topic.
Sometimes someone will say, “Women are the worst with each other,” but then
the conversation ends there. I was in the middle of working with a particular
woman while I was making that record, and I was moved to address the matter in a
song. It’s still a very charged song for me when I perform it.
HANDS CLEAN: If I had written about the “Hands Clean” subject
matter during jagged little pill
era it would come out more angrily--like “Right Through You.” That song is
the result of my protecting someone by being secretive about what really
happened. That theme had been carried on many, many times throughout my life. I
would cover for people all the time. So it was really liberating to write
“Hands Clean.” While I can be a vengeful bitch, that’s not my intention.
My intention is to liberate myself from that kind of repression, and the
constant taking care of someone else’s reputation at the cost of myself.
MERCY: I was invited to sing on that track after Nusrat Fateh Ali
Khan had died after laying his vocal down for that track. Jonathan Elias, who
created The Prayer Cycle
album, invited me to finish the track and I felt so honored because I was
already a huge fan of Nusrat. Jonathan wanted the album to feel as international
as possible. My dad’s French Canadian, my mom’s Hungarian, so I translated
the lyrics with my grandmother and I sang it in Hungarian. It was an honor to
work on this and the other songs on the record.
STILL: I wrote this song in my hotel room in
UNINVITED: I remember writing “Uninvited” almost as a way
to step out of the radar and out of pressure cooker that was following up jagged
little pill. It was a way for me to write another song with no
pressure. It was my first step away from Glen, which in and of itself was a
terrifying concept, but I think necessary. I saw a screening of “City
of
LET’S DO IT, LET’S FALL IN LOVE: Irwin Winkler who directed De-Lovely,
Rob Cohen and Irwin’s son Charles Winkler who produced the movie invited me to
their office and said, “This is what we’re doing.” They asked me to pick
from ten songs. I said “Yes” right away and I let them know that I had a
background in dance. So my cameo in the movie involves my singing and dancing. I
thought it was a sweet, whimsical jump off the radar to go into a genre that had
nothing to do with what I do every day. This was a lot of fun for someone who
grew up with Judy Garland fantasies.
HAND IN MY POCKET: I wanted to end with a tip of the hat to the jagged
little pill album. For me that song fits in with the theme of
stumbling my way towards wholeness--that song just speaks well to that duality
in life. It feels like “Hand In My Pocket” started a chapter for me in that
way, and it was a good way to end before beginning the next chapter.
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