Flavors of Entanglement

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Flavors of Entanglement
Studio album by Alanis Morissette
Released	May 30, 2008 June 2, 2008 June 4, 2008 June 9, 2008 June 10, 2008
Genre	Rock, Pop Rock, Alternative, Electronica
Label	Maverick, Warner Bros. (US) Festival Mushroom Records, Warner Bros. (Australia/Pacific)
Producer	Guy Sigsworth
Professional reviews
ACED Magazine link All Music Guide link A'n'E Vibe link ARTISTdirect link Billboard (Positive) link Blender Magazine link Bloomberg L.P. link Buzz Sugar link College on the Record link CONFRONT Magazine link Entertainment Weekly B+ link The Montreal Gazette link Manchester Evening News link Metromix Cleveland link MusicOMH link Rolling Stone link SameSame link Slant Magazine link Sputnik Music link The Sunday Times link UGO B- link US Weekly link USA Today link
Alanis Morissette chronology
Alanis Morissette: The Collection (2005) Flavors of Entanglement (2008)
Deluxe Edition

Flavors of Entanglement^[1] is the seventh studio album and fifth international release by Canadian singer-songwriter Alanis Morissette. The album, which was originally set for an April release, was released May 30 in Germany, Benelux and Brazil, released internationally on June 2 and in the United States on June 10 (per an announcement from Morissette's official Web site). It was produced by Guy Sigsworth.

[edit] Themes and subject matter

According to Morissette, the album features a "nice cross-section" of "joy and levity" similar to what is featured on her 2004 album, So-Called Chaos, and "[the] kind of rock bottom, 'Holy shit, I am a broken woman moment".^[2] She said that the album features songs about her own personal relationships, explaining that writing about them is her favourite activity "'cause it's the only thing I can really comment on with any kind of conviction or authority."^[2] The album incorporates themes involving both personal and political conflict, and Morissette explained that "Our emotions align themselves with larger symptomatic things in the world. We face a large war out there, but [the album] more closely reflects the war in peoples' living rooms... the icy silence at home, versus the big cold war."^[3]

Morissette summarised the track "Moratorium" as being "essentially a song about my readiness to stop repeating bad patterns. I've kicked some of those in my life."^[3] She said of "Not as We", "You know how you can resist hitting rock bottom for a long time? That song just goes 'ok, I'm going. All the way down'".^[2] "Underneath" is about breakdowns in communication.^[2]

[edit] Style

Morissette has noted an expansion of her musical sound on Flavors of Entanglement, and that there are "more technological aspects to it on a sonic level" than previously. She said that because of her love for dancing, the album incorporates beats and loops that enable one to, in her words, "dance your face off".^[2] She has described the album as "a combination of everything" in which she has a musical interest, including hip hop beats and organic instruments.^[3] Morissette has referred to the album as "techno-sounding but organic" and said, "I like fusion."^[4] According to Billboard magazine, the album "balances world- and folk-influenced tracks against the experimental pop leanings of producer Guy Sigsworth".^[3]

[edit] History

In March 2005, Morissette said she was ready to begin work on a new album, explaining that she had filled four journals and usually began a new album after filling two—"I'm very pregnant with songs", she said.^[5] She mentioned her intentions for the sound of the album in a December 2005 interview to promote Alanis Morissette: The Collection, saying she "would love to fuse the technological sonic landscapes with the more organic ones".^[6] In January 2006, Rolling Stone wrote that Morissette was in between "intense" writing sessions for her upcoming studio album, for which she had enlisted multiple collaborators, including Mike Elizondo, who produced her song "Wunderkind" for the soundtrack of the 2005 film The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Morissette described herself as "teeming with ideas" because she hadn't written an album in three years (her previous studio album, So-Called Chaos, was released in 2004); she said "I have more than enough thoughts to congeal together."^[7]

In October 2006, Morissette said in an interview with TV Guide that she was going to enter the studio and start writing new material over the next few weeks, saying "at the present, I have seven journals full. I have a lot within me ready to burst out."^[8] Morissette released a cover of The Black Eyed Peas' "My Humps" in April 2007, and the high quality of the recording led to speculation among fans that she was in the studio working on an album.^[9] She performed at a gig for The Nightwatchman, a.k.a. Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, at the Hotel Café in Los Angeles on April 24. There, she said that she and producer Guy Sigsworth had been "sequestered" in London and Los Angeles during the previous few months writing "a bevy of new songs". Accompanied by Sigsworth on piano, Morissette played a new song, "Not as We".^[10] Later, the song appeared in the third episode of the fourth season of the television series House, "97 Seconds",^[11] which was first aired on October 9.

In August, Sigsworth said in an interview with arbiter.co.uk that twenty-five songs were written for the album, thirteen had been recorded, and eight more were being recorded after Morissette requested B-sides and "exclusives". Sigsworth described Morissette as "a dream to work with" and "totally into my sound world."^[12] In the same interview, guitarist and programmer Andy Page said that at one point, they were working on twelve of the tracks simultaneously, and that one contains "moshing distorted guitars" and a "'wall-of-noise'" created using Guitar Rig. Page also said that he had used the graphical modular software music studio Reaktor on the album, saying of it that "I prefer using its granulators and weirder signal processors to its synths. Some of its physically modeled stuff is very cool, and there are some cool wavetable synths."^[12] An October 2007 interview with Morissette published on the blog Holons 2.0 reported that the title of the album was Flavors of Entanglement, although it said no release date was set.^[1]

A video for another new song, "Underneath", was premiered on September 15 in Los Angeles, as part of the Elevate Film Festival.^[13][14] The purpose of the festival was to create documentaries, music videos, narratives and shorts regarding subjects to raise the level of human consciousness on the earth.^[15] Morissette submitted the song, and then (as with the other fourteen videos) had the music video written, directed, shot and edited in two days.

In a review of the album published on the blog website www.arjanwrites.com in December 2007, Rob Diament of the band Temposhark wrote that "Flavors of Entanglement is without a doubt a career highlight", and that "In the same way that Madonna's Ray of Light with William Orbit delivered us a new perspective of Madonna, Guy's and Alanis' meeting of minds has produced a fresh, classy, gutsy and uplifting masterpiece that will stand the test of time."^[16]

[edit] Track listing

1. "Citizen of the Planet" — 4:22
2. "Underneath" — 4:10
3. "Straitjacket" — 3:08
4. "Versions of Violence" — 3:36
5. "Not as We" – 4:45
6. "In Praise of the Vulnerable Man" — 4:07
7. "Moratorium" — 5:35
8. "Torch" — 4:50
9. "Giggling Again for No Reason" — 3:48
10. "Tapes" — 4:26
11. "Incomplete" — 3:30

[edit] Bonus tracks

• Digital edition

12. "It's a Bitch to Grow Up" — 4.03

• Japan edition

12. "20/20" — 4:17

[edit] Deluxe edition bonus disc

1. "Orchid" — 4:21
2. "The Guy Who Leaves" — 4:11
3. "Madness" — 6:22
4. "Limbo No More" — 5:21
5. "On the Tequila" — 3:42

• All songs written by Alanis Morissette and Guy Sigsworth.
• All lyrics written by Alanis Morissette.
• All songs produced by Guy Sigsworth.

[edit] Other recorded tracks

The following is a list of songs that didn't make the final tracklist. Morissette said the album would feature eleven tracks^[3], but that these other songs will find their way to be released in other forms such as in-store exclusives and YouTube music video releases.^{[citation needed]}

1. "I Am"^[4]
2. "Wounded Leading Wounded" ^
3. "Asylum" ^^
4. "Break" ^^
5. "Separate" ^^

^ "Wounded Leading Wounded" was written originally for 2004's So-Called Chaos but was abandoned. Guy Sigsworth and Morissette brought the song out again for their studio sessions.

^^ These songs have never been mentioned by Morissette or Sigsworth, but recently appeared on ASCAP's songfile database credited to Sigsworth and Morissette.

[edit] Promotion and touring

Morissette and Mute Math opened for the band Matchbox 20 on their North American tour, a two month-long excursion that began on January 25, 2008 in Hollywood, Florida and ended on March 18 in Las Vegas, Nevada.^[17][18] Morissette is confirmed to perform at all the shows except the Verona, New York venue.^[19]

After the tour with Matchbox Twenty, Morissette says that is when the album is released. In June, Morissette will go to Europe and do headlining shows there, then return to North America for the continuation of the headlining tour in the fall. ^[20]

On Friday, March 28, Morissette filmed an eight song set for Sessions@AOL, an online music program produced by AOL Music. The set is scheduled to appear online in May. In January, Morissette filmed a mini-concert special for A&E which is slated to air May 18. She is also on the line up for the Summer Concert Series for The Today Show.

Alanis.com revealed a contest for the first 200 participants to e-mail in, were invited to a private show for Yahoo! Music' "Live Sets" program. ^[21] During the months of May and June, Morissette will be touring around Europe, tourdates can be found on her official website as they are added. In America she is expected to hit the talk show and radio circuit prior to the release.

On Tuesday, June 3rd, MuchMusic got the rights to stream the entire album online a full week before its North American release.^[22]

On Wednesday, June 11th, Alanis appeared on The Howard Stern Show to promote the album. She spoke about the origins of some of the tracks on the album, and then performed Hand In My Pocket as well as Underneath. She also spoke about personal encounters with lesbianism, as well as other sexual liaisons she's had.

[edit] Charts

[edit] Credits

• Alanis Morissette – vocals
• Guy Sigsworth – production, engineering
• Andy Page – guitars, programming, mixing
• Sean McGhee – programming, engineering, backing vocals
• Blair Sinta – drums
• Peter Freeman – bass
• Fiora Cutler – string arrangement

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Robertson, Jessica. "Alanis Morissette Exploring 'Flavors' on New Album". AOL Music PopEater. October 3, 2007.