Under Rug Swept - Alanis Morissette

Most people will have not heard of Canadian artist 'Alanis' until 1995 when her bitterly honest, confessional style of songwriting sent her album "Jagged Little Pill" rocketing up the charts across the world and catapulted her into the limelight. Considering the brutal honesty of "Jagged Little Pill" it is almost bizarre to consider how she was once a huge star in Canada, putting out Paula Abdul-esque pop/dance tracks until something changed. Alanis cites moving to L.A. and growing up fast because of it which then allowed her to write with more maturity and to put honest, very personal thoughts into her songs which before hadn't been ...  Read the complete review

Answering her critics who call her a man hater, on 'Under Rug Swept' Alanis displays a new maturity. Yes, she sings about failed relationships and egotistical men, but she also likes men as difficult as men find that it to believe that! The general tone of the CD is upbeat, although tracks 4 and 7 are slower and more melancholy/pensive. Even the songs that are bitter or sad have a certain calm strength to them rather than a vindictive air a la 'Jagged Little Pill'. Alanis has moved on and grown up, although the past still affects her ('flinch'). Most people know Alanis Morissette from her debut album 'Jagged Little Pill'(1995). If ...  Read the complete review

Originally signed up as the main profit-maker for Madonna's own record label 'Maverick', Alanis Morissette shot to international fame in the 1990s with some of the most inspiring and awesome songs to graze our land for some time. The soft-rock catchy classics 'Ironic', 'You Oughta Know', '(You Live,) You Learn', and '(One) Hand in My Pocket' were all acclaimed and extremely successful chart-climbers, all of which led to the album 'Jagged Little Pill' becoming the 5th best seller of the 1990s in the UK. Alanis came back, amid intense pressure for decent music and troubles with her home life, for a second stab ...  Read the complete review

It can't be easy selling 28 million copies of what is effectively your debut album, just ask Alanis Morissette who in 1995 found herself catapulted into the mainstream collective consciousness with 'Jagged Little Pill'. Neatly filling the role of Courtney Love's more palatable younger sister, Morisette mixed the fury and noise of grunge with neat pop melodies, a pretty face and the classic vulnerability of the best singer songwriters. Along with the likes of Sheryl Crow and Tori Amos she pushed the female singer songwriter genre right back to centre stage and spawned an army of imitators, most of whom faded back to obscurity soon after (where are you now ...  Read the complete review

Under Rug Swept was the 5th Studio Album by Alanis Morrisette, who had previously enjoyed huge success with Jagged Little Pill and Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie. I am going to write this review as impartially as possible, although Alanis is my favourite female artist of all time! The album was released 25th February 2002 in the UK, and the following day in the US. It was the first album written and produced completely by Alanis, and sadly, whether or not as a direct result of this, it did not match the previous success of her other albums. The album was produced, recorded and written very rapidly - with each track only requiring a couple of takes and ...  Read the complete review