THE ALT-ROCK LIONESS RECENTLY RELEASED HER NINTH STUDIO ALBUM, FLUSH WITH THE SAME RAW EMOTION THAT CATAPULTED HER TO GLORY 25 YEARS AGO

BY AMANDA McCOY

Alanis Morissette has never been one to hold back in her disposition or her music. The 46-year-old megastar first nabbed international notoriety in 1995 with the album Jagged Little Pill, her lyrics rife with agitation and satire, emotion and humor. At only 21 years old, the Ottawa born songstress spoke her uncensored truth, laying bare her feelings about heartache and rage, pressure and uncertainty, with powerful undertones of hope and empowerment. She had a lot to say, and she thought the world “ought to know.” They listened. The album sold more than 33 million copies, was nominated for nine Grammys, and won five, including Album of the Year, making the Canadian rocker the youngest artist at the time to claim the honor. The album would later inspire a stage adaptation, premiering in Cambridge in 2018 before taking to Broadway in December 2019.

Morissette’s latest album, Such Pretty Forks in the Road (album cover below), was originally slated for a May 1 release but was pushed back in light of the pandemic, officially launching on the last day of July. Now a mother of three, the artist’s voice has certainly evolved from the fiery angst of a young adult, but the palpable urgency and fervor is still as present and painful as ever.

“This record was a giant haunting moment,” offered Morissette at a recent press interview. “Every single song haunts me in some way.” Whether it’s an exploration of alcohol addiction and her inveterate eating disorder in “Reasons I Drink,” postpartum depression in the emotional ballad “Diagnosis,” or betrayal and animus in “Reckoning” (a letter to her former manager, who was sentenced to six years in prison for stealing millions of dollars from the artist), Morissette sings with the same intensity and vulnerability that rattled the music world in the mid-90s. The fierce songstress isn’t afraid to get real, uncomfortable even, revealing to the world her strength along with her scars.

Alanis Morissette
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