"I'm not a tinkerer, but I did tinker like a madwoman on that bridge [to 'Hands Clean'] for some reason, and I've never done that before," she continued. "If something's a belabored process, I usually just throw it out. If it's coming too much from my mind, I can't stand it. I think I wrote four bridges for that song, and I hated all of them, and then, finally, in Los Angeles, I wrote the bridge. Some of the bridges were a little harsh and not exactly saying what I wanted to say, either musically or lyrically, and then finally, it did."
While "Hands Clean" gives closure, other songs such as "21 Things" open up the door to new beginnings. (It's basically a want ad for what she's looking for in a mate; qualified candidates should log on to her Web site, she jokes). Under Rug Swept doesn't follow a definite timeline, but it does trace the story of the ending of one relationship and the start of another. "That's certainly not where the whole story ends," she said with a laugh, "but that's where the record story ends."
With the delays in the album's release — it was originally slated for last year — due to contract negotiations with her label, Maverick, Morissette had extra time to rethink some of her songs and bring aboard more guest players (including Me'Shell Ndegeocello, Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea, former Jane's Addiction bassist Eric Avery and Stone Temple Pilots guitarist Dean DeLeo). And during her off-time between sessions, she traveled around the globe extensively, something from which she derives much inspiration, even if it's just to clear her mind and figure out her goals, she said. She even spent some time on a Navajo reservation.
"There's a thread of continuity, subject matter-wise, that permeates not only every trip I take, but every interaction I have," she said. "And it undoubtedly influences what I write. The sense of community the Navajo people really focus on, there's a similar sense of community I felt when I traveled, when we toured through the Middle East. It permeates what I yearn for and I try to create it as best as I can through the songs or in my personal life." [RealVideo]
Some of Morissette's yearnings are obvious ("Utopia"), others less so. The end result of her wanderings and wonderings is a collection of songs on Under Rug Swept that land smack in the middle, stylistically, between textured Jagged-esque tunes ("21 Things") and soft and subtle Supposed-like songs ("Utopia"). It lurches between the sweeping pop of "So Unsexy" and the monumental rock of "A Man," the closest she comes to reaching the high drama of her promising "City of Angels" soundtrack contribution, "Uninvited."
Morissette continues her use of eccentric phrasing and non-rhyming lyrics on Under Rug Swept, a writing style loved by her biggest fans and smirked at by her most critical detractors. She tumbles her words out, almost awkwardly, with a bent towards run-on sentences and repetition as her main structural devices. Some might call it crimes against the English language, others stream-of-consciousness. The track "21 Things" is the most guilty of this, since it exists in a list form: "Do you derive joy when someone else succeeds?/ Do you not play dirty when engaged in competition?/ Do you have a big intellectual capacity but know that it alone does not equate wisdom?" Her lyrics don't always seem "musical," but that is her goal — to create a melody out of something that doesn't immediately lend itself to the structure of a typical song.
"I wound up being structured sometimes, but by default," she said. "Because I'm telling a story, I've often found that when I write poems — and I loosely call them poems because I don't really think they're poems — but when I write anything, especially songs, the verses themselves become the different chapters and the choruses are almost like the revelation of the song and the bridge is the reflection. So the structure typically used in a song is actually helpful to me because it helps me take the whole trajectory of the song and have it be exactly what I want it to be."
Though Under Rug Swept seems to have a certain sense of closure in itself, almost like a salve to the relationships it addresses, Morissette insists that this isn't the end. She said she had so much material at the end of her extra sessions she has a full disc's worth of songs ready for Maverick to release later in the year.
"I don't know if it'll be an album," she explained, "but we shot a lot of the making of the record, so we're probably going to put it together in some shape or form, and then maybe have some of the songs that weren't included on this record be included in the package ... I wanted to share them. I didn't want to throw them out ... I feel like I want to write a whole other record right now."
For more Alanis Morissette check out Alanis Morissette A to Z.
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