Now Is the Time

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Now Is the Time
Now Is the Time cover
Studio album by Alanis
Released August 1992 (Canada)
Recorded Distortion Studios, Ottawa
Genre Pop, dance
Label MCA
Producer Leslie Howe
Professional reviews
  • Rock and Roll Rarity (mixed) link
Alanis chronology
Alanis
(1991)		 Now Is the Time
(1992)		 Jagged Little Pill
(1995)
For the Polysics album, see Now Is The Time!.

Now Is the Time is the second album by Alanis Morissette, released by MCA Records only in Canada in August 1992 (see 1992 in music). Morissette recorded the album with Leslie Howe, who produced her debut album Alanis (1991).

Contents

[edit] Release

The CRIA certified it gold after it shipped 50,000 copies, but sales were lower than those of Alanis and it did not stay long on the album chart.[1] Lead single "An Emotion Away" reached number twenty-four on the singles chart, and three follow-up singles were released: "No Apologies", "Real World" and "(Change Is) Never a Waste of Time".

In 1993 John Alexander attempted to get Alanis and Now Is the Time released in the United States by approaching Scott Welch, who became Morissette's agent and manager but was not impressed by the albums.[1] After the album's release Morissette re-evaluated the direction in which her career was headed. According to John Alexander, head of A&R at MCA, "She told me, 'I want to be in an environment where I can write without any regard for what I should be writing, based on a preconceived notion of who I was as an artist.' She definitely had a desire to develop her songwriting, to further express herself as an artist."[2]

[edit] Legacy

In 1995 Morissette released her international debut album Jagged Little Pill through U.S. label Maverick Records. Executives at Maverick persuaded MCA Records to withdraw all copies of Alanis and Now Is the Time from circulation, and they did not mention either album in the promotional material for Jagged Little Pill.[3] According to Spin magazine, Morissette's transformation from "the Debbie Gibson of Canada" to an alternative rock musician made some Canadians skeptical.[4] Like Alanis, Now Is the Time is no longer available to buy, but it has been bootlegged. Morissette's contract with MCA expired after the release of the album, and she said "It was kind of a blessing that it was over, because I wanted to start out with a clean slate, not only personally but career-wise, too."[4] TIME magazine called the album "uninspired", and the song "Rain" "wistful",[5] while The Kansas City Star labelled it "a lightweight faux Madonna album".[6]

Morissette said of Alanis and Now Is the Time, "...I'm not scared people might hear these records. I never did Playboy centerfolds. There's nothing I regret. Maybe people will just understand my lyrics a little more if they hear those records. It validates [Jagged Little Pill] ... There was an element of me not being who I really was at the time. It was because I wasn't prepared to open up that way. The focus for me then was entertaining people as opposed to sharing any revelations I had at the time. I had them, but I wasn't prepared to share."[7] She considered including material from both albums on her 2005 compilation The Collection, but she decided against it, explaining "it was right around when I was 19 and Jagged Little Pill where I first felt writing was a channeled experience. That has a lot to do with where I was at then, with having met Glen Ballard, with my moving from Canada and moving away from any preconceived notions of how songs 'should' be written. It was the beginning of a new way to approach songwriting altogether."[8]

[edit] Track listing

All songs written by Alanis, Leslie Howe and Serge Côté.

  1. "Real World" – 4:57
  2. "An Emotion Away" – 4:14
  3. "Rain" – 3:52
  4. "The Time of Your Life" – 4:45
  5. "No Apologies" – 5:02
  6. "Can't Deny" – 3:55
  7. "When We Meet Again" – 4:10
  8. "Give What You Got" – 4:56
  9. "(Change Is) Never a Waste of Time" – 4:40
  10. "Big Bad Love" – 4:14

[edit] Credits

  • Produced, engineered and mixed by Leslie Howe for Ghetto Records at Distortion Studios
  • Photography by Dan Seguin (cover) and Andrew LeBlanc
  • Design: Martin Solort
  • A&R direction: John Alexander

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b "Alanis Morissette - Biography". The Canadian Pop Encyclopedia. Retrieved August 20, 2006.
  2. ^ Kawashima, Dale. "Great Publishing Story: John Alexander & Alanis Morissette". Songwriter Universe Magazine. Retrieved August 20, 2006.
  3. ^ Ashare, Matt. "Platinum Bomb?". The Boston Phoenix. November 2, 1998. Retrieved August 19, 2006.
  4. ^ a b Hannaham, James. "Alanis In Wonderland". Spin. November 2, 1995. Retrieved August 20, 2006.
  5. ^ Farley, Christopher John. "Confessional Immediacy". TIME. November 2, 1998. Retrieved August 19, 2006.
  6. ^ Finn, Timothy. "'Pill' not so jagged in new acoustic release". The Kansas City Star. July 5, 2005. Retrieved August 20, 2006.
  7. ^ Wild, David. "Adventures Of Miss Thing". Rolling Stone. November 2, 1995. Retrieved August 19, 2006.
  8. ^ "Official Biography". Maverick Records. Retrieved August 19, 2006.

[edit] References

v • d • e
Alanis Morissette
Studio albums
Other releases
Singles
"Too Hot" • "Walk Away" • "Feel Your Love" • "Plastic" • "An Emotion Away" • "No Apologies" • "Real World" • "(Change Is) Never a Waste of Time" • "You Oughta Know" • "Hand in My Pocket" • "All I Really Want" • "Ironic" • "You Learn" • "Head over Feet" • "Uninvited" • "Thank U" • "Joining You" • "Unsent" • "So Pure" • "That I Would Be Good" • "Hands Clean" • "Precious Illusions" • "Everything" • "Out Is Through" • "Eight Easy Steps" • "Crazy" • "Underneath"
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