Morissette Previews New Album At Los Angeles Show
By Teri vanHorn
LOS ANGELES - Alanis Morissette has returned to the jagged little sound
that
made her famous.
The Canadian singer debuted eight new songs during a show Friday night,
providing a generous preview of her next album, which is sitting in
limbo
while she fights a contract dispute with Maverick Records.
Much of the new material harked back to the edgier pop-rock of
Morissette's
1995 smash, Jagged Little Pill, and steered away from the moody,
Eastern-influenced sound of its follow-up, 1998's Supposed Former
Infatuation Junkie.
Accordingly, the two-hour performance - the first of two consecutive
nights
at Los Angeles' El Rey Theatre - was almost entirely devoted to new
songs
and Jagged hits. Junkie tunes were hard to come by, with only the hit
"Thank
You" and "Sympathetic Character" making the cut.
Clad in a sleeveless peach shirt and a sheer slit skirt wrapped around
black
leather pants, the singer and her five-man band performed before a
colorful
backdrop picturing flowers and a yin-yang symbol, with the word
"Artist"
printed in the center. Morissette played guitar on most of the new
songs,
including the opening numbers "Unprodigal Daughter" and "21 Things I
Want in
a Lover."
"Wow, we're actually doing this," she said early in the set. "These are
new
songs I wrote in the last six months. Thanks for letting us try them on
for
size."
She then led the band into the chimey, flaring "Fear of Bliss,"
featuring
the line "Sometimes I feel this is too good to be true."
On the softer side of the new material was the ballad "Flinch," for
which
Morissette played acoustic guitar. "What are you, my dad/ You touch me
like
you are my dad," she sang. The lyrics, in typical Morissette fashion,
featured slight variations of the same line throughout the song, with
the
singer substituting "kin" and "aunt" for "dad" in subsequent verses.
A couple of new songs recalled the confrontational angle that marked so
much
of Jagged, but traded the petulance of "You Oughta Know" for more
reflective, mature sentiments. On the percussion-heavy "Bent 4 U,"
Morissette sang, "A million times, a million ways, I feast on scraps
from
you." On "Narcissist," which featured spoken verses set against melodic
choruses, she sang, "I try to help you, but you really don't want me
to."
Both "Purgatorying" and "A Man" carried a moody feel, the latter
opening
with Morissette's voice set against keyboards.
Though the crowd, which included Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale,
embraced
the new material, Morissette effectively sprinkled her hits throughout
the
show to avoid chancing patience. Highlights came with the chilling
rendition
of "Uninvited" and the show-closing "Ironic."
Several of the new songs have already turned up on Napster and
elsewhere on
the Net.
The next stop for Morissette is the Rock Am Ring festival in
N|rburgring,
Germany, on June 1.
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