ATN Toronto correspondent Peter Howell reports: Forgotten
in Canada. Ignored in the U.S. But how times have changed for
Ottawa's Alanis Morissette, the comeback queen of 1995. In the
space of a few weeks, the dance pop star turned modern rocker
has found new respect in her own country and a huge new audience
in America, all thanks to her confessional new album, Jagged Little
Pill. It's the third CD for the just-turned-21 performer, but as
far as the U.S. is concerned, it's her debut. She has been welcomed
stateside with major radio play and MTV video rotation for first
single ``You Oughta Know,'' while Jagged Little Pill has jumped to
No. 14 on Billboard's trend-setting Top 200 albums chart, ahead of
such heavyweights as Soul Asylum, Bon Jovi and Neil Young.
Morissette's star has risen so quickly south of the border that
she was asked to replace Sinead O'Connor on the Lollapalooza '95
bill, after the Irish singer's pregnancy forced her off the bill.
Morissette said no thanks, being wary of repeating the too-fast climb
that hurt her as a teenaged pop star. But it's hard to stop a skyrocket,
and Morissette, who perform the other night (Aug. 9) at Lee's Palace,
is riding atop one.
Until recently, she would have been more likely to read
a career obituary on herself in a Canadian newspaper, rather than
a rave review. As often happens with teen pop stars, she'd outgrown
her audience, failed to impress her critics and failed to gain U.S.
attention, despite strong chart success in this country with singles
from her first albums, Alanis (1991) and Now Is The Time (1992).
Jagged Little Pill changed all that. It's the tautly written
and artfully sung work of a woman who is taking on her adversaries
[Editor's note: Or who studied Exile In Guyville :-)], whether it's
the caddish ex-lover of "You Oughta Know" ("It was a slap in the face
how quickly I was replaced") or the faithless person of "All I Really
Want" ("I'm frustrated by your apathy").
Morissette's barbed-wired lyrics, given added musical heft
through her new musical partnership with Louisiana-born guitarist Glen
Ballard, have surprised people in Canada who had grown used to her
earlier songs of teen love. "I thought there would be a few people in
Canada who would be a little shocked," Morissette said during a recent
interview in Toronto. "People have a different reception to it in the
U.S., because America didn't have the preconceived notions as to who I
was, and Canada did, for obvious reasons.
"I understand it, and I think the record speaks for
itself," she continued. "I like to think that people hear it
and understand. I talk through the lyrics about the evolution
and what's happened over the last little while."
In her time out of the public eye, Morissette lived
in Toronto's Beaches neighborhood ("In my bohemian little
apartment") where for nearly two years she went through the
entanglements -- romantic and otherwise -- chronicled in her
new album.
She also made a fruitless search for a songwriting partner,
because she enjoys the dynamics of combined effort. She estimates she
went through 100 different writing partners, in a frustrating series
of mismatches that continued after she moved to Los Angeles 18 months
ago.
Morissette was almost ready to give up finding a writing
partner, until she met Ballard, an easy-going producer and songwriter
who had worked with Quincy Jones, and who had penned "Man In The Mirror"
for Michael Jackson. The two clicked immediately, and began to write
songs of brutal honesty in spontaneous one-take sessions. At first, it
was almost too easy.
"I remember expressing a fear to Glen when we first
wrote `You Oughta Know' of how I was afraid of being so honest,"
Morissette said. "But the alternative would have been to censor
things and tell half-truths and non-truths and I swear to God I'll
never do that again. I also think I would have a problem performing
it night after night, if it wasn't about something that was a visceral
response of my own."
Her words are so direct and the scenes so vivid in her
new songs, Morissette has already had the uncomfortable experience
of having friends and associates ask her if they are the subject
material. They are indeed, but Morissette doesn't want to give
specifics. "I've sort of chosen not to drag the people that these
songs are about through the mud with me," she said. "Just because
I've chosen to be this honest, I can't presume that they want to be."
One can't help wondering about the cad in "You Oughta Know,"
the guy who in real life dumped Morissette for an older version of
herself. If he recognizes himself in the song, his ears must be burning.
"The good thing about it, I'm not even sure whether he even knows it's
about him," Morissette says of her ex-lover.
That would seem to speak volumes about the guy's sensitivity
and general awareness, if he doesn't notice a bullet shot straight
between the eyes. "Yes, it does, doesn't it?" Morissette said, smiling.