Recently in Music Category

I posted this on Twitter, but I figure I'll put it out on my blog too:

Every decade has those bands that were cool but in hindsight represent the worst excesses. Which current bands will we hate to admit liking?

A few come to mind right away, and I love a couple of these bands:

• Broken Social Scene


• Clap Your Hands Say Yeah


• Pussycat Dolls. My wife loves them, so maybe my perceptions a little skewed.


• Coldplay


• Kid Rock

What are your votes?

You know how it is. You hear a song you've never heard before and it immediately clicks in your head.

"This is clearly the soundtrack to Keanu's next movie!"

Happens to me all the time, or it did, until I heard E-Nomine, at which point all other contenders were convincingly bested.

If I were Ryan Reynolds I would absolutely have offered a very public, open, and sincere apology to every woman I've ever known, especially Alanis Morissette, whose new album "Flavors of Entanglement" just came out this week. And then I'd hide from everyone for a while.

Her album is well, stark. She's always been known for her intensely personal lyrics, and this album does not belie that reputation. If anything, this is a return to that mode, which she moved away from a bit on her last album. It shouldn't come as a surprise to her fans that she's got a lot of material to pull from. It's been four years since her last album, and she's gone through a lot of personal upheaval in that time. She was in a happy relationship with actor Reynolds, got engaged, and then broke up after three years. Not long after they split, he proposed to actress Scarlett Johansson. It is within that context Alanis has released her new album.

She's always mined from her past relationships and personal issues for her albums, and with "Flavors of Entanglement" she has a lot to say, and she's not holding back. With song titles like "Not as We", "Incomplete", and "Versions of Violence" and lyrics like the following:

These versions of violence Sometimes subtle sometimes clear And the ones that go unnoticed Still leave their mark once disappeared

This labeling
This pointing
This sensitive's unraveling
This Sting I've been ignoring
I feel it way down way down

(From "Versions of Violence")

Or

Something so benign for me construed as cruelty
Such a difference between who I am and who you see

Conclusions you come to of me routinely incorrect
I don't know who you're talking to with such fucking disrespect

This shit's making me crazy
The way you nullify what's in my head
You say one thing do another
And argue that's not what you did
Your way's making me mental
How you filter as skewed interpret
I swear you won't be happy til
I am bound in a straight jacket

(From "Straitjacket")

And

"I am someone easy to leave"
"Even easier to forget"
a voice, if inaccurate
Again: "I'm the one they all run from"
diatribes of clouded sun
someone help me find the pause button

(From "Tapes")

This feels like her most cathartic album since "Jagged Little Pill" which raged and roared in a way nobody expected.

The difference this time is that the music accompanying her lyrics is near top-notch. "Jagged Little Pill" sold on the basis of Alanis' blisteringly personal lyrics and her commitment to being as honest and open about her anger at everyone's failures. It was not the music that carried that album. For this album however she collaborated with Guy Sigsworth who has previously produced music for Björk, Britney Spears, Madonna. He is also the second half of the band Frou Frou, who I also personally enjoy.

Sigsworth's production, like his work with Frou Frou, is full of electronic beats, ambient noise, and loops, but with this album he also employs big guitars, and the occasional world music elements. What's nice is that it is neither angular or hard to swallow. His work with pop stars in the past shows they trust him to make create danceable music. This album shows their trust is not misplaced. He clearly has the chops to craft accessible music, and Alanis was smart to work with him.

With "Flavors of Entanglement" the music is equal partner with Alanis. It matches her in volume and intensity when it needs to, and stays out of her way when it should. Most interesting though is that even when the subject matter is darkly personal, the music usually manages to maintain a pop flavor, similar to Kelly Clarkson's last album My December, which was both danceable and personal. There are more intimate songs that are typically just Alanis and a single instrument, but there are fewer songs like that on this album.

Given this change in direction, I am sure some people will complain that it is too poppy, or that it sounds too much like Frou Frou or Britney Spears. I honestly don't view this as a bad thing. Sigsworth has not changed the intensity with which Alanis sings, or how rawly she exposes herself. He's only dressed it differently. If anything, this make the music accessible for a younger group of listeners who have listened to Clarkson, Avril Lavigne, and Nelly Furtado, but have no idea who they've been borrowing from all this time.

However, don't let me give you the impression that this album is all sturm and drang. There are lighter moments on the album, like "Giggling Again For No Reason", which has a sweet lemon and summertime feel to it. Clearly her time with Reynolds, and the afterwards, haven't been all bad. She's stated in interviews that she's had a lot of rock bottom moments and hasn't always bounced back from them, but this album is the "biggest bounce".

And that's probably the most charming aspect of the album. It explores the darkness and lightness of the break-up. In that after time when you are free you feel so starkly alone and completely free. It is both terrifying and liberating. You want to collapse, you want to dance, you want to weep in the face of it all and laugh in delirium. And this album condenses all of that into about 46 minutes of music.

46 minutes of some of the most open, honest and raw music. But it never loses its appeal or power, even on subsequent listens. And because of its accessibility and the context with which it's been released, I think it will get some substantial airplay. Which bring me back to Reynolds. He's bound to get some additional scrutiny from friends, family, and fiancee. The gossip media's already buzzing with questions and innuendo about how much of the album is about him, and the timing of the album's release.

All the while Alanis gets to enjoy the positive album reviews, she coyly deflects this scrutiny, and demurely says she's happy for Reynolds.

Honestly, she probably is. As this album shows, she's gone through hell and come back (again), ready to sing, ready to dance, and ready to move on.

You can buy Flavors Of Entanglement here.

Just a gripe...I put my iTunes library onto an external HD to free up space on my laptop and I've had nothing but trouble ever since. It keeps losing music that I've purchased or added recently. I'm actually getting ready to go through and remove everything from the library period and add things back as I want to listen them.

I'm so frustrated.

Heather and I got the kids 4GB iPod Nanos for Christmas so they could listen to their music on their little stereos and we could share music with them, and they've got a fair amount of kids music on it, like Charlie and Lola, Disney Princess Tea Party, and so on, but sometimes I find myself blurring the line of kids music and putting on some music that's not distinctly for children. I usually think I have good reason, like a lot of stuff from Barenaked Ladies has practically done double duty since they started, and the same goes for They Might Be Giants, but I caught myself putting R.E.M. on their iPods today.

It was "Shiny Happy People", but still...I wonder if I'm blurring the line a little too much.

Honestly I'm not worried about it as long as they like it, but if someone sees me loading "Satan Says Dance" from Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, slap me.