MIKEB
The King Of Rationality
Posts: 4,536
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Post by MIKEB on Nov 14, 2016 23:21:59 GMT -5
A few months ago, I put together a list of my favourite songs by one of my all-time favourite artists Alanis Morissette.
I ranked, in order, all of her tracks from all of her albums, including b-sides, bonus tracks and other recordings by her and in the end, came up with a list I can confidently say is my Top 50.
I first fell in love with Alanis' music back during the days of Jagged Little Pill. I didn't jump on board when You Oughta Know first came out however. I remember when MuchMusic would play the video often and I chalked it up as being another random rock song by another random Cancon act that MuchMusic was trying to turn into a thing. And then it entered Casey's Top 40, which was my go-to for music at the time, so I gave it a chance. By that point, MuchMusic began playing another video by her, Hand In My Pocket. I was on board the Alanis train by the time Ironic came out. The video, the chart domination, everything at that point was perfect. I was an Alanis fan.
Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie was the first CD I ever bought on the day of release (November 3, 1998) and Under Rug Swept was the first album I ever downloaded from the internet before its release date (I burnt it to a CD and created my own CD insert for it - of course I did buy it at first opportunity also).
I would say Alanis has had the biggest impact for the longest time in how I thought of songwriting. She has such a unique structure that I've leaned on a lot over the years (and find myself trying to lean away from because I've become too dependent on it).
I saw her for the first time when she performed Hands Clean at the Juno Awards in 2002 but that was it until I finally got to see her live a few years back in Maine when she did a full set solo show. It was great. I wish I had been able to see her during her peak in the 90s but it was nice to hear her live in person.
So I will be starting this list within the next day or so. I actually haven't reviewed the list since I made it a few months back. Gotta make sure I still agree with it before I start posting. I hope you follow along!
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Post by JessieLou on Nov 15, 2016 11:34:11 GMT -5
SRGS;W';rhmklwq'e;rtko3wtp'ykwl
SO EXCITED FORT HSI@!!!!!!!!!!!!Q
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MIKEB
The King Of Rationality
Posts: 4,536
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Post by MIKEB on Nov 16, 2016 23:03:39 GMT -5
#50 - Bent For You from Feast On Scraps (2002) I think I might consider Bent For You to be the most stereotypical Alanis song ever. It’s a rock song with spiritual elements and instrumentation, a very steady chorus, at least one instance of her using “-ed” as its own syllable, and verses written in very Alanis-like fashion. This was initially a b-side for Precious Illusions, the second single from Under Rug Swept, and was later included on Alanis’ b-sides album Feast On Scraps, which was made up only of Under Rug Swept b-sides, which was too bad since she did tend to have other unreleased recordings from previous singles that could have filled out this collection a bit more. #49 - Guardian from Havoc And Bright Lights (2012) When Alanis unveiled the first single from her first album in four years, Havoc And Bright Lights in 2012, I was excited because it was the closest she had come to her Jagged Little Pill sound since Jagged Little Pill. The production was less polished and she sounded more raw. In hindsight, the song is as mellow as most post-2000 Alanis tends to be, and maybe her least adventurous single to date, but I think enough time has passed since its release that it fits comfortably among her post-JLP singles. #48 - An Emotion Away from Now Is The Time (1992) Before Alanis was dubbed Canada’s “angry young woman,” she was a pop star with two bubblegum pop albums from the early 90s. It was initially kind of thrilling to hear her in such an upbeat pop fashion because her voice is still so recognizable, but so bizzaro - and even though she did eventually embrace pop again on her later albums, the difference is how she sounds so naive and innocent on the pre-JLP songs. An Emotion Away is the only song from either Alanis or Now Is The Time to make the Top 50 but Too Hot is a bop too! #47 - My Humps (2007) After Alanis faded from the pop charts in the early 2000s, there have only been a few instances where she received widespread attention. Perhaps the greatest of these was when she parodied the Black Eyed Peas epic (yes, I do love it!) hit My Humps, turning it into a sensitive piano ballad. The humour wasn’t lost on the BEPs as Fergie sent Alanis an ass-shaped cake in response to her video. This went viral before going viral was yet a thing. Alanis the innovator! #46 - Still from Dogma (1999) This song came out during the height of my Alanis standom in mid-1999. I didn’t actually hear the entire song until a few years later because at the time, having to rely on dial-up internet to download songs from Napster, I only got to download about 3/4s of the song. It didn’t have the impact or significance of Uninvited, having not been a single, and since it came between Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie and MTV Unplugged, it got lost in the shuffle of Alanis goodness. I wouldn’t call it a ‘highlight’ of hers but it does blend in very nicely among her discography so at the very least, it’s a nice footnote and perhaps a better indicator of what was next than anything on SFIJ.
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Post by JessieLou on Nov 16, 2016 23:19:57 GMT -5
LOVE Guardian. I thought it was her best song since Eight Easy Steps. Still and My Humps are bops too. Don't remember the other two oops
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Post by FreakyFlyBry on Nov 16, 2016 23:19:58 GMT -5
Her cover of "My Humps" is hilarious - I hated the original, but the way Alanis completely redid it was very interesting.
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MIKEB
The King Of Rationality
Posts: 4,536
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Post by MIKEB on Nov 16, 2016 23:30:38 GMT -5
LOVE Guardian. I thought it was her best song since Eight Easy Steps. Still and My Humps are bops too. Don't remember the other two oops Bad fan.
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Post by JessieLou on Nov 16, 2016 23:35:41 GMT -5
whore
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MIKEB
The King Of Rationality
Posts: 4,536
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Post by MIKEB on Nov 16, 2016 23:44:20 GMT -5
#45 - Superstar Wonderful Weirdos from Jagged Little Pill Demos (2015) I’ve been familiar with this song since I downloaded it back in the early 2000s and tacked it onto a demos/bsides compilation I put together called Unsurrounded By The Pawn (it was a line from Unprodigal Daughter - I continued Alanis’ tradition of naming the album after a line from a song). The version I found was an upbeat poppier one compared to the recording eventually included as part of Jagged Little Pill’s 20th anniversary box set demos album. While the “new” version is higher quality than the one I had, I actually prefer the “old” one because it was fun and happy. At the time, I thought maybe it was a song from before JLP but after her two pop albums - kind of a transitional recording. Nope, just a reject. It wouldn’t have fit into JLP. #44 - Crazy from The Collection (2005) Crazy was the only new recording on Alanis’ terribly organized Best Of/Hits compilation The Collection, and it’s a cover of Seal’s 1991 hit. I think it was initially released in conjunction with a Gap ad campaign. I remember not caring much for it at the time. It was too tame and uninteresting. I did prefer the Glen Ballard remix initially as it was more rock-based, compared to the James Michael mix of it that made it on the album. In the last year or so, I’ve warmed up to it a lot, particularly the dancier remix. That beat is on fire! #43 - Utopia from Under Rug Swept (2001) This song was released in response to 9/11 as a charity single. I don’t think it made any charts (though my local radio station played it a bit) and it was vastly different than anything Alanis had released up to this point. But it was still a beautiful song that even today, kind of recaptures the mood for when I think back to late 2001. It was a post 9/11 world and specifically looking at the music scene of the time, there were a lot of songs that sang about hope. This was one of my favourites. #42 - Offer from Feast On Scraps (2002) Alanis has an odd number of mellow songs (mostly from Feast On Scraps and Flavors of Entanglement) that I never really have the urge to listen to but when they come on, I really really enjoy them. Offer is a song that has gotten stuck in my heads for days after randomly hearing it and I definitely consider it a stand-out track from Feast On Scraps. #41 - Unsent from Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie (1998) The situation of Unsent is so strange. Can you imagine an artist following up one of the biggest albums of all time with an already strange record only to have the all-important second single be a song with no chorus or even really much of a melody? At the time, I thought Unsent was the shit and even now I love it but of course it was going to flop! It was such a case of self-sabotage (or label sabotage - whoever’s idea it was) that Lady Gaga could never, but it was such an interesting experiment because the song still did pretty well all things considered. And because of the song structure, and the fact Alanis was still a significant name in early 1999, Unsent got a lot of attention. But it did break her streak of 5 consecutive #1s on pop radio and 7 Top 10s in a row.
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Post by FreakyFlyBry on Nov 16, 2016 23:48:53 GMT -5
I must say, I'm not familiar with the Feast On Scraps stuff myself. But the rest are all good! I actually hadn't heard the original demo of "Superstar Wonderful Weirdos", only the Jagged Little Pill 20th anniversary version. Her Crazy cover was great and Unsent was quite a huge risk but I liked it enough to make my top 5. Utopia definitely captured the mood of the era well, and was one of my favourite Under Rug Swept songs.
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Post by JessieLou on Nov 17, 2016 9:47:33 GMT -5
I LOVE UNSENT <3
Superstar Wonderful Weirdos, Utopia, 5-week JT40 #1 smash Crazy <3
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MIKEB
The King Of Rationality
Posts: 4,536
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Post by MIKEB on Nov 19, 2016 11:43:23 GMT -5
#40 - Wunderkind from The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe Soundtrack (2006) Wunderkind of one of two songs from the Chronicle of Narnia soundtrack I used. I watched the movie with my first bf a few times and we both loved Imogen Heap, who had a song on the soundtrack, while I enjoyed that Alanis had another song on it. Both are gems. #39 - 21 Things I Want In A Lover from Under Rug Swept (2002) Under Rug Swept sounded quite a bit more polished than either JLP or SFIJ so the first track from the new album, 21 Things, was quite different but Alanis was settling into who she was with songs like these that touch on social, political and spiritual attributes she’s become associated with. This is the rockiest song on the album that leaned heavily toward pop compared to her previous two. #38 - Front Row from Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie (1998) As fantastic as Jagged Little Pill was, the songs were still fairly standard in their structure, which made track 1 from its long-awaited followup that much more odd because it wasn’t standard. It didn’t have a particularly strong chorus and is made up of four long verses, and only touches on the oddness of that followup album. Singles-wise, the options were limited. Yet in Canada, some radio stations picked up on this song to play following Thank U, somewhat serving as the second radio single. It didn’t sound out-of-place in 1998. #37 - Not All Me from So Called Chaos (2004) Of all of Alanis’ albums, So Called Chaos makes me feel most nostalgic. Sometimes hearing a few notes from the album takes me right back to spring 2004 and I feel homesick for it. Not All Me is one of the songs that hits the hardest when I hear it. It’s also the poppiest song on the album, which is saying a lot because while I consider SCC to be my second favourite Alanis album, I think John Shanks’ production is too clean and pop-leaning when I’ve always thought it could have benefitted with a bit more grit and edge to it - (and I actually love Shanks’ productions, having also done Hotel Paper by Michelle Branch). This song would later show up again under the title Havoc in 2012. #36 - Your House from Jagged Little Pill Acoustic (2005) I started my first chart back in 1995 so it did live on through the Jagged Little Pill era. Many of the tracks from the album made that chart and most hit the Top 10, including this one which I had called Forgive Me Love, because I didn’t know the actual title until a few years later when I discovered it online. Alanis performed this at the VMAs in 1996 with a guitar accompaniment (and also possibly drums too) and I enjoyed hearing it with music - as classic as the a capella is on the original album. So when JLP Acoustic came out ten years later, I was thrilled that the new version was with a band. It’s not as vulnerable so in that sense it doesn’t outshine the original but it isn’t as sore when part of a playlist so I like that aspect.
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MIKEB
The King Of Rationality
Posts: 4,536
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Post by MIKEB on Nov 19, 2016 22:09:29 GMT -5
#35 - Doth I Protest Too Much from So Called Chaos (2004) I’m terribly upset at how So Called Chaos was treated single-wise. Everything, at that point, was my least favourite Alanis’ single and went on to be my least favourite track on the album (it was the last track so by the time I was through with Spineless, I quite often just stopped it there). I remember Doth being rumoured to be a single that never happened but like much of the album, it probably could have worked as a single and maybe perform somewhat better than Everything did. It has such a nice melody in the verses and a great chorus! #34 - That Particular Time from Under Rug Swept (2002) I’ve always been a sucker for a good piano ballad and at this particular point in time, piano pop always won. This one from Alanis was different from the rest of the album and while it wasn’t particularly catchy, it always stood out to me. #33 - King Of Pain from MTV Unplugged (1999) Alanis’ MTV Unplugged knocked my socks off. My first true love from it was her cover of the Police’s King of Pain, which I still love today. By the second chorus, she’s rocking it! As awesome as it would have been to hear a studio recording of this, I don’t think they could recapture the magic they got in this recording. It’s perfect as it is. #32 - You Owe Me Nothing In Return from Under Rug Swept (2002) I like the backing piano in this song. Of all the songs from Under Rug Swept, for some reason this is the one I’ve come back to the most in recent years. It’s not necessarily my favourite song from the album, but seems to be the one that has lasted the longest. #31 - In Praise Of A Vulnerable Man from Flavors Of Entanglement (2008) In Praise Of A Vulnerable Man might just be the You Owe Me Nothing In Return from Flavors Of Entanglement. Not necessarily my favourite from it but the one I go back to more than anything else from that album. And like YOMNIR, it’s a pleasant sounding mid-tempo pop song.
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Post by JessieLou on Nov 20, 2016 8:42:25 GMT -5
SO MANY BOPS!!! Wunderkind got to #2 on my chart. 21TIWIAL kicks ass and so does Front Row Not All Me and Your House are great. I get nostalgic for So-Called Chaos too but moreso for late 2004. The older posters on here should know why. I was also underwhelmed by Everything and she won me back again with Eight Easy Steps. Doth I Protest Too Much is my 2nd favorite on the album and would've made a great single. Her cover of King Of Pain is great and all but I wish she did Mother instead. IS THAT MY MOTHER ON THE PHONE
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MIKEB
The King Of Rationality
Posts: 4,536
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Post by MIKEB on Nov 22, 2016 23:38:33 GMT -5
#30 - Perfect from Jagged Little Pill (1995) We finally get to a song from Jagged Little Pill. Despite being nearly halfway in, JLP is the most represented album in this list with 10 songs in the Top 50. The biggest challenge I found when putting this list together was mixing Alanis’ JLP songs with everything else. JLP is in my Top 3 favourite albums of all time and for the most part, I see it as its own entity that exists separate from the rest of Alanis’ discography. You have Jagged Little Pill Alanis, and then you have everything else Alanis. So comparing her JLP material with her post JLP material was a tough pill to swallow because they kind of seem like two different artists. Perfect was always a song from JLP that I never considered a highlight but I still absolutely love it. I love the lyrics and delivery and it’s great to sing with. #29 - These R The Thoughts from MTV Unplugged (1999) I think I heard the studio recording of this before the MTV Unplugged version. It was a b-side from one of the Joining You singles. So to have it as a track on the unplugged album was a treat, and I definitely like it best. It has a hopeful tone to it. #28 - Underneath from Flavors Of Entanglement (2008) This song came out with very little hype or fanfare. It pretty much may as well didn’t exist other than as an album track but it was the first single from Flavors Of Entanglement. I remember thinking it was quite bland and generic when I first heard it and I guess that isn’t necessarily false but it was the continuation of a nice sound for Alanis with producer Guy Sigsworth. #27 - Head Over Feet from Jagged Little Pill (1995) I always thought this was a strange choice for a single after You Learn. In hindsight, it did really well but at the time, it wasn’t my pick as a single at all. I think at that point I was really feeling Wake Up or All I Really Want or something and would have voted for them as the last single. The video for this was also so simple. I stanned Alanis so hard at that point that I was feeling it but can you imagine if a pop star today shot a video like that? #26 - Orchid from Flavors Of Entanglement (2008) This is another lo-tempo Alanis song from the latter half of her discography that I really get into. Sometimes the chorus gets stuck in my head for days and not even because it’s catchy. There’s just something about it that draws me in.
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Post by FreakyFlyBry on Nov 22, 2016 23:45:30 GMT -5
Surprised "Head Over Feet" is that low! Good to see "Perfect" and "Underneath" there too.
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