Deus ex machina: Homme+

Moratorium - Alanis Morissette

20/20 - Alanis Morissette

Versions of Violence - Alanis Morissette

Here are 2 tracks leaked from Alanis Morissette’s up-coming new album called Flavors of Entanglement.

Alanis has always been the angry woman’s Sheryl Crow. Unlike Madonna who went to India back in 1998 and brought out the wiccan Frozen before leaving it in the dust for the pink leotards of Hung Up, Alanis went to India and seems staunchly entrenched in her Indian mantras.

But I wonder. Has Alanis returned to her roots? Before she went esoteric, hug-a-tree, sit-cross-legged and chant-ohm, she was the epitome of the spurned woman, the embodiment of vitriolic angst.

But people grow up. And mellow down. Hopefully. So also with Alanis. Jagged Little Pill was a lesson in pure, uncensored bile — and we lapped it up like the visceral experience it was. But she has never recaptured that dark magic since. Alanis has grown up and mellowed down. So, in short, Alanis’ new album, out in stores soon (or so they say but who knows if it’ll get delayed), while thankfully not as hug-a-tree as some of her older offerings, is an almost return to her former self.

There’s the backslap of 20/20. With Moratorium, she sharpens her set of knives. And Versions of Violence has got some of old-school Alanis nails-down-her-back vibe written over it.

In any case, I’m just thankful she hasn’t completed her metamorphosis into (ahem) Sheryl Crow.