"Look at us rallying our defences..." -- Alanis Morissette, 'Underneath'

Music When was the last time Alanis Morissette released a single to support a new album release that wasn't a compilation or remake? The ever useful Wikipedia says it was in 2004 for So-Called Chaos but it seems even longer than that. In the intervening time we got amongst other things the Acoustic Pill, the rubbish cover of Seal's Crazy and the wonderful YouTube parody of My Hump and no real indication of where Alanis would be going next musically. Personally I hoped she'd be inspired by the recording she made of Cole Porter's Let's Do It for the film De-Lovely and knock out an album of standards.

In truth, if Underneath is any indication, the new album Flavour of Entanglement's not going to be that far from what we've heard before. It's certainly lighter in sound that the first album, but the mix of ethnic samples and guiter rock are still in evidence and I'm frankly not sure if I'm disappointed or delighted. In the intervening years, I've actually warmed to those earlier hours, yes, even Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie. I've also decided that the best song she ever recorded was Polyanna Flower which was the b-side to that album's Thank-U, which is insane, ethereal and angry.

If only Underneath was that powerful. The sentiments are rather deeper than usual since she's apparently talking about the rather nasty break up with actor Ryan Reynolds (what was she thinking?) but this still fits with the usual formula. It's another list and the lyrics are startling verbose managing to make a word like 'symptoms' scan within a popular song. I just feel like I've heard it before -- there's not much here which differs from her 2002 rareties album Feast On Scraps and the baseline reminded me of a cross between Snow Patrol's Open Your Eyes and Coldplay's Yellow.

I hardly expected the genre tourism of Jewel Kilcher but I did hope for something new. But there is hope. The b-side 20/20 is also from the forthcoming album and strips the backing to what sounds like the break of a gamelan and reverb and highlight's what's always been Alanis's best quality - her distinctive voice. It works like a new age bit of John Dowland (sans Sting) and has a strangeness which is very untypical. If the rest of the album's like this, than we do have a treat in store and even if I hate it now, at least based on previous experience I'll warm to it in a few years.

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