More Morissette: Alanis out with fifth album of fury

By KYLE RIDLEY/For the News & Messenger
Published: June 26, 2008

Multi-platinum selling singer-songwriter Alanis Morissette's revealing fifth album, "Flavors of Entanglement," chronicles a relationship's devastating demise on through to hopeful resurrection.

The 11 tracks on Morissette's first CD in more than four years takes listeners on an unrestrained voyage through lessons in heartbreak, fury and joy.

"I basically was tending to my personal life, just wanting to kind of shake my tree," said Morissette, 34, of her long break away from the spotlight. "If I over schedule my calendar, everything suffers, including the light behind my eyes. So for me it's about pacing everything."

The Ottawa-born singer explained she had not taken a serious hiatus from the industry since traveling to India nearly a decade ago and she felt the time away was vital.

"I feel like I was a 30-year-old or 25-year-old… that had a 12-year-old inside of me that was just trying to figure it all out," Morissette said. "So it seems like the last couple of years, especially, I've just grown up a lot, emotionally."

Morissette, who shot to stardom in 1995 with her 35 million selling debut album "Jagged Little Pill," began writing "Flavors" in January 2007 during her much publicized breakup with actor and former fiancé Ryan Reynolds, now engaged to Scarlett Johansson.

"I think there's the same menu of emotions available to me," said Morissette, comparing the writing of "Flavors" to "Pill." "I am less afraid of them now, whether it's anger or fear or pain or joy or exaltation."

Thirteen years after "Pill" became the biggest selling female debut album of all time, Morissette said she has grown to trust the songwriting process and her ability to share her inner most thoughts. She admits she was once "blindsided" by success, but now sees songwriting as an opportunity to help others.

"The turning point for me… was really realizing that my sharing my personal journey was an invitation for others to feel comforted or validated or inspired in their own personal journey," she said.

Morissette wrote 24 songs for "Flavors" alongside pioneering electronic producer Guy Sigsworth.

"He's a mad scientist genius," Morissette said. "It was a pure joy for me to do what I love to do best, which was songwriting and melody writing… and leave the production side to him, which I think he did a really beautiful job of."

The seven-time Grammy winner said the new tunes have a sense of immediacy because they were all written in real time instead of drawing from past experience.

"Pretty much all of the songs on the record, what I was commenting on, was literally happening in that moment, so it was very present tense," said Morissette, calling the daily studio sessions a "saving grace."

"If I weren't in that studio with that structure of songwriting and the accountability to actually be there physically, it would have been a bit of a rough go for me," she said.

Several tracks address her broken engagement and "personal unraveling," including solo piano ballad "Not as We." The song hauntingly details the initial moments after a break up and the lost sentiment attached.

"Reborn and shivering/spat out on new terrain… day one, day one/Start over again… but this time I as I/And not as we," Morissette sings.

The song's vulnerability is showcased in both lyrics and raw vocals, with Morissette's voice cracking on the end chorus, as if painful to sing.

On "Torch," another breakup ballad, Morissette candidly lists everything she misses about her former lover, including his warmth, body in her bed, and the thought of raising children together.

"These are not times for the weak of heart.... I never dreamed I would have to lay down my torch for you like this," she sings.

Morissette tackles a brand new sound on techno-fused rocker "Straitjacket." The song has been compared to her angst-ridden 1995 debut single "You Oughta Know" in its similar response to jilted love.

"Flavors" is not all heartache and gloom, however. Amidst an array of dark tales, Morissette offers lighter fare with "Giggling Again for No Reason," a bubbly ode to friendship, and the celebratory "In Praise of the Vulnerable Man," where she pays tribute to an ideal mate.

First single "Underneath" touches on politics by linking global concerns to issues at home. The track reflects Mahatma Gandhi's macro stemming from the micro concept.

"Look at us waging war in our bedroom/Look at us jumping ship in our dialogues… There is no difference in what we're doing in here/That doesn't show up as bigger symptoms out there," Morissette sings.

Morissette said striking a balance between emotional content was essential when finalizing the track list.

"It's important for me, because in the midst of a breakup or in the midst of a rageful moment or a broken moment, there's still so many other flavors that I can access at any given time," she said. "I'll be in the middle of grieving something and then I'll be cracking up 10 minutes later. So I wanted to make sure that the record wasn't just kind of an overall broken experience."

Morissette added despite often being labeled as angry or sad, she considers her true nature to be "always hope-filled, no matter how dire circumstances get."

Morissette is touring Europe through the summer and will embark on a North American tour in late September.

Kyle Ridley can be reached at .