The Mouth That Roared
Alanis Morissete's Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie and other pop music selections
October 1, 1998
Alanis Morissette, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie (Maverick/Reprise Records1998) John Austin, If I Was a Latin King (Weathervane Music, 1998) The Prince of Egypt (Dreamworks Music, 1998) Exodus (Rocketown Records, 1998) Michael W. Smith, Christmastime (Reunion Records, 1998) Feminine angst, thy name is Alanis. That's the only half tongue-in-cheek conclusion that comes from repeated listens to the 17 songs that make up Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, the ambitious follow-up to Morissette's '95 release, Jagged Little Pill. The latter was a record that broke all sorts of records, a fiery, defiant album that paved the way for the Lilith Fair crowd and contained a single with the now-infamous reference to sex at the Multiplex ("You Oughta Know"). Amidst the star's arresting vocal agility and a jangling wall of sound, the disconcerting moral seemed to be that Good Girls do—do put out, do put themselves first, and do put their boyfriends in their place. Brimming with hooks, riffs, and one-liners, the disc was a dark, all-too-catchy ode to the adolescent cult of self. Returning to the table after a three-year hiatus that included a trek to India and a stint playing God in Kevin Smith's still unreleased film Dogma, Morissette doesn't seem quite ready to settle down just yet. Pill was primal scream therapy; Junkie, though switching gears slightly, is still shot through with psychobabble. Her beatnik poetry can be eccentrically appealing (on "Heart of the House," she extols her mother with the adulatory "You are the original template"!). But as song titles like "The Couch" and "Are You Still Mad?" suggest, her rants continue to be rather painfully self-aware (I'm waiting for several tunes to be co-opted for soundtracks to teen dramas ...
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