11

Morissette's Classics

This is the first retrospective album of the Canadian singer-songwriter Alanis Morissette's career, celebrating the last ten years 1995 –2005. What? I hear you cry, most Brits instantly think back to her 1995 debut with 'Jagged Little Pill', and that she had a couple of hits. Well not so, 45 million units shifted in the last ten years, shows that Morissette has staying power.

This collection has been selected by Alanis Morissette so all eighteen tracks on the album are her personal choices, including her brilliant cover of the Seal classic 'Crazy'. So not only do we get some massive hits on this album, we also get some of her personal favourites, which is better than the album being put together by a record label executive.

"It was a torturous challenge to come up with the songs for this collection record," commented Alanis. "Ultimately, I put this collection record together to have something to show my great-grandkids one day, and to reflect with objectivity on my own evolution as a writer and singer."

'Princes Familiar' shows the versatility of Morissette, as she has used a live acoustic recording from the MTV Unplugged series, which is better acoustic than it ever was recorded in the studio. This sits snugly between two favourites of the record buying public, 'Ironic' and 'You Learn'. In just three songs alone you can see the strength in her song writing, as the vocal composition is so strong.

Probably some of the worst tracks on the album are those that are soundtracks. Sometimes soundtracks should be forgotten about and some of those included on this album could fall into that place, 'Mercy' from the Prayer Cycle is probably one of the weirdest songs you could get on any album, with its bizarre chanting, it seems so out of place it's unbelievable, but Morissette likes it!

The album ends with what is easily Alanis Morissette's biggest hit here in the UK, 'Hand In My Pocket' which is still a fabulous song ten years after it originally beat up the UK charts.

In all, this is a great album if you want to really want to discover Alanis Morissette, with many different twists and turns. The album shows off the tremendous strengths in Alanis Morissette's song writing as well as her incredibly beautiful voice. For those that lost track of her over that last ten years then this album will help you come bang up to date with her career and it is a fabulous addition to any record collection.