Album Review: Alanis Morissette - Havoc & Bright Lights

Alanis Morissette has always been a confusing ball of abrasive torment and soft yearning, though she's generally been adept in mixing both approaches across a song, and an album – that's kind of been her thing. Though a clear separation has occurred across eighth record Havoc & Bright Lights, and the emotional over-sharer seems to have lost her edge.

Woman Down is supposedly an ode to feminism, but by showing the view of the “lady haters” (ugh) through over-produced programming, sharp synth bursts and jangly '90s guitar, it comes off as an epic insult to the intelligence of women. Followed directly by a slow, piano ballad, 'Til You is tempered sporadically with a lone, echoing tambourine shake that makes for one hell of a train crash with Woman Down. The title track is similarly lacklustre, and the sharpness of tongue or melody that is typically Alanis never arrives. However, it is more than present across Celebrity as her unique diction delivers ambitious as “am-bitch-ous” and the unforgettable line, “I am a tattooed, sexy, dancing monkey” is used to describe LA culture; with off-kilter drum loops and an eerie Dexter-esque soundscape interjected by heavy guitar, this Alanis just can't make peace with the adult contemporary one at the helm of middle-of-the-road yawners Empathy and Spiral.

There's nothing hugely wrong with Havoc & Bright Lights, but the thought of seeing these songs live conjures the mental image of a no-name, middle-aged touring guitarist strutting the stage with a duck pout, mounting fold-backs and making a general soft-rock spectacle of every superfluous lead break or embellishment. And then the spotlight moves to Morissette who weeps quietly at her piano. The end.