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REVIEW – ALANIS MORISSETTE was once on top of the world. When Nirvana once cracked college radio with “ Smells like Teen Spirit”, all of a sudden the world paid attention. The public did not care about their history, all of a sudden everyone looked like they came from the Seattle coffee house. Morrisette was the same. Teenage girls had their anthem, their “Baba O’ Riley” with “You Oughta Know”. I went to see her on the “Jagged Little Pill” tour. Her opening act was K’s Choice. Think about that pairing for a moment. It seems that magazines like Rolling Stone, AP and Spin gave her more credit later on than they did for “Jagged”. The problem is that while Alanis grew as a musician on each cd, her music suffered from it.
Let us be honest, ALANIS MORISSETTE in 2020 is a tough sell. Only her die hard fans will buy into this mid life crisis cd. No new listener is going to hear “ Reasons I drink” and rush out to discover who this artist is. There is a reason why the albums have come out and sold moderately less each time. There is no way to go back to the 1995 era and I feel that to have this cd today is fitting from Alanis. She is much older, a mother and knows now the world she once begged for acceptance with is a cold monster if you let it, will absorb your being. “Forks” is like a scrapbook of sorts into the person who is Alanis.
She talks about her sufferings, her addictions and most of all her current path. I feel though that cd has one huge positive. The lyrics are so real. Alanis has always been good at painting life pictures that invite us in whether we want to go or not. Songs on this cd make you see Alanis not as a human being but more of a commodity. It feels like that she even knows that everything she says or does is going to be judged whether fair or unfairly. That is a scary place to be as not only a person but as an artist. Alanis has always been the queen of throwing her personal business in a melody or lyric and just making it catchy. This time around she comes from the place of a mother who is coming to terms with her place today but struggling with the inner core of being there. “ Such Pretty Forks” is her return after 8 years.
This piece of self discovery is interesting but yet we have heard it all before in parts and pieces. That is why bands like Hootie and Blowfish and Guns and Roses have that one huge album and then nothing after that they release even come close. I feel Alanis gave her whole career to one cd and after that, it was just the aging of a pop star who wanted to change the direction of the slide she was on. This cd is not bad, it is just an Alanis on AM radio sounding affair trying to refire the flame that once was. The songs on this cd can be played in the car of a soccer mom who wants to tell her best friends about how her husband is a cheating piece of shit and everyone in that car would understand what a sorry bastard he was. Alanis in 25 years went from young rebellion voice of teens to the voice of the middle aged mom. There is nothing wrong with that if you are willing to commit to something different. Alanis is happy just being Alanis. I hate that I am being so hard on her. I feel that she has so much more to offer than this Helen Reddy stuff. She went from going down in a theater to wanting to change out her dentures. I love the woman and thought this cd would be in my top ten this year. She left me with so much promise after ” Havoc” and this cd while decent, it was not a comeback or return cd. This cd sounds like she did not leave and has been bored.
