Alanis Morissette
Hands Clean

Alanis Morrissette sold 28 million copies of her debut album, "Jagged Little Pill". That's pretty incredible. Why? They were decent enough tunes, granted, but their real appeal lay in the fact that people, particularly women, thought that Alanis understood all their problems perfectly. She could sum up the joy, pain, and angst in their lives in 13 tracks.

Her last record, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie didn't do this, and thus suffered commercially. She started dealing with her own problems in songs, not everyone else’s. Whether we can blame her for this is another matter. Now she's back. What’s she doing now?

She's releasing "Hands Clean", her best ever record. She's back writing insanely catchy songs, primed for daytime radio play, that have deeper resonance that the usual garbage chucked out by Dr. Fox or whatever. It's a complex confessional dialogue that rehashes an old, and by the sounds of it, rather dodgy relationship. The verses are written from the point of view of the mystery person (in the past) and Alanis' replies (from the present) form the bridge and chorus. Got that?

If you're of the opinion that ALL Alanis Morrissette records are spaced-out bollocks praying on the insecurities of early thirties middle class women, then this isn't for you. Otherwise, turn it up, and pour yourself a Horlicks.