Last Friday Alanis Morissette released her new album Flavors of Entanglement. After her over polished pop album So Called Chaos that was anything but timeless, and the decent but uninspiring first single Underneath I honestly did not expect too much from this record. I heard 2 other songs a few weeks in advance that also kept me wondering where this would be going. But when I heard all the other songs I was instantly hooked and now I have it in endless rotation on my iPod and I can’t wait to see her in Berlin on July 8 at the Tempodrom. Read on to learn more about the album, listen to song samples and see some more images.
The album starts off surprisingly rocky with a song that reminds me a lot of the strength of her second album Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie which I was totally in love with in my teenage years. Next comes her first single which I think is one of the weakest songs from the album due to its dull chorus. We then find her strapped in a Strait Jacket for a very splashy pop song that is a lot of fun. After that she gets a little darker with a song called Versions Of Violence that almost reminds me of Evanescence.
Moratorium is one of the songs that took me a while to get used to because of the unusual use of a break beats. Giggling Again For No Reason is Alanis’ take on a dance song, which came out quite nice. I would have never expected that to work out for her. The last song on the album is my bet on the next single, a song called Incomplete. I think it has a lot of power and could be as strong a single as Ironic, which was her biggest hit so far.
It is not only the quality and versitility of the music that impresses me, I also think she has some of her best lyrics on this album. I guess this might be related to her break-up with actor Ryan Reynolds a while back. It wouldn’t be the first time that a broken heart leads to a stunning album. And I’m pretty sure that Reynolds will find himself in a few of the songs on Flavors Of Entanglement.
