Album Review : The Collection by Alanis Morissette

Alanis Morissette will go down in music history as the artist that made it possible for female singer/songwriters to write frank, angsty lyrics and still sell millions across the globe. Seen as the pioneer for angry lyrics sung by a female artist, Alanis has recently released her greatest hits record, simply titled The Collection. I don't know why I never bought myself any of her records; I must admit until a few years ago I never bought any albums by women singers. Ok sue me, but I just had this feeling that I could never connect to a song sung by a woman since it would be from the point of view as a woman and never have any true meaning for me. As those who have seen earlier entries of this blog will know, that is just a bunch of BULLSHIT! Alanis's song You Outta Know was one of the first songs sung by a female singer which I though "wow" when I first heard it. It still makes me think that way. That is just one of the great singles she has put out and frankly, it is not my favourite song of hers!

Thank You starts off the greatest hits collection and it is a good way to start off the album, although I would have gone with You Outta Know since that is the song that started it all for Alanis. Head Over Feet & Everything are both good songs about having fallen in love despite of character shortcomings & flaws which she did not think would attract a person to her. A big surprise for me was the cover version of Crazy, which is a Seal song. Seal inspiring Alanis? One of my favourite songs to shout along to is Ironic - no matter what the critics said about the fact that some of the situtation described by her in the lyrics are not really ironic in nature. Fuck you!! I sing along with the song wholeheartedly; but I change the lyrics sometimes to "It's meeting the man of my dreams and then realising - Hey I'm not gay!" LOL!

Princes Familiar, You Learn (I so much love the MTV Unplugged version of this song, it is so much better than her original) & several people's favourite Hand In My Pocket round out the album and the others are not bad at all. But wait I did not mention my favourite Alanis song did I? Look no further than the end of this blog entry. All told, I don't care if later Alanis albums are not selling as much as her Jagged Little Pill phenomanal album. 30 millon is a once in a lifetime thing. I like listening to Ms.Morissette, so let her sell just a few million and live happily ever after with Ryan Reynolds. Go buy this CD!



Song for the day - "Hands Clean" - ALANIS MORISSETTE