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Alanis Morissette

Emma Johnston

Such Pretty Forks In The Road SONY

Even after all this time, the furious first impression of 1995’s Jagged Little Pill has Alanis Morissette trapped in amber for many as the angry and vengeful young woman of You Oughta Know. That, clearly, is unfair, and her ninth album is a measured, but unwaveringly honest, portrait of middle age with all its elation and tribulations.

Honesty, of course, has always been Morissette’s calling card, and on this collection of glossy, piano-led songs, in Diagnosi, she gives an account of postpartum (‘baby blues’) depression that is a tiny feminist triumph - a depiction of a struggle countless women face but which is rarely discussed. Rather than looking at big world issues, this is a record of the small, quotidian struggles that conspire to grind a person down, from the self-medication of Reasons I Drink, to the acceptance that life can be overwhelming on Losing The Plot.

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Classic Rock
August 2020
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