Alanis Morissette's latest album, Under Rug Swept, debuted at No. 1 on both Billboard's Top 200 and Internet Album charts. The album entered the charts at No. 1 in 12 other countries and the top 10 of nine others, with total worldwide sales already exceeding 2.5 million.
Released on February 26, it was written and produced by Morissette in Canada and Los Angeles, and as usual is an exploration of relationships—in this case, tracing the steps of a recent breakup.
     Her label, Maverick Records, worked hard to involve fans in the release. Morissette performed a worldwide concert Webcast—a multi-camera, TV production-quality show—for MSN with over 1 million visitors one week before her album release date. AOL streamed the single and the video of "Hands Clean" over 1 million times and offered a stream of the entire record one week before the release of the album.
     Under Rug Swept also contains an enhanced CD feature, enabling fans the ability to access a "secret Web site" of very rare content by Morissette, which includes additional tracks, behind-the-scenes clips from the making of her video for "Hands Clean" and exclusive audio outtakes. In the first week alone, 26,000 fans registered to the secret site.
     "Hands Clean" examines a past relationship and how its effects linger. Morissette has never hesitated to make her personal life public fodder. Of this song, which examines the dynamic of her involvement with someone much older while she was still a teenager she said "I did it for the sake of my being liberated at long last. Whether you call it statutory rape or inappropriate behavior by an adult—it doesn't matter. I felt at the time I had only two choices—I pick either working with this person or not doing music at all. Hopefully some 16-year-old can think of me for even 10 milliseconds and realize they're not alone or crazy."
     The song is structured in a call-and-response manner. "I like the idea of him 'speaking' to me from the past and my responding from the present," she explained. "It was really healing and empowering for me to be able to have that virtual dialogue. My songs often inspire me to be more courageous and authentic in my day-to-day life as the process of writing a song leads to a clarity and courage that I have, at times, a more challenging time accessing the outside of the songwriting and artistic process." Writing, she says, "lets me, from this place of understanding and offering compassion to myself, offer it to others more fully."
     In the midst of working on the new disc, she also watched a relationship unravel. "I knew once I started writing songs, the relationship I was in would end," she said. "I was terrified of that happening. Part of me just didn't want to write, but what was I going to do? Wait 20 years and marry this person and never write again and die of depression? I started writing and within two weeks, the relationship was over."
     She wrote 30 songs, recorded 25, and pared them down to 11 for the album. She says she "put on her conceptual seatbelt" when getting down to the business of songwriting. Out of that came songs of introspection, honesty and observation about the differences between the genders. "I find that without a map of sorts, or a vision of what it is that I'm striving toward—whether it be on a personal, global or social level—I wind up being somewhat aimless, and my relationships reflect that," she remarked. "This is true of both 'Utopia' and '21 Things I Want In A Lover' in particular. The process of defining what it is that I would like creates its possibility, based on how powerful I believe our thoughts and clarity of intention to be. Of course, once I have a map, I throw it away, let go and see what life has to offer!
     "I think there's an amazing opportunity and challenge presented by our differences. I feel men and women offer each other the chance to be more integrated and healed in the embracing of each other. So, too, do I believe this to be the case when it comes to different cultures (as in the East and the West, etc.) and religions and races … I feel like these relationships hold an amazing, blessed spiritual opportunity to define ourselves in accordance to each other, and to tangibly feel our having been cut from the same spiritual cloth and to feel more whole.
     "On a more personal level, I believe that relationships of all kinds, but particularly romantic relationships, are one of the best and surest ways for our souls to evolve."
     She also uses music as a way to communicate beyond personal issues, focusing on the big picture and how one affects the other. "I have always believed that the personal is the political, is the global, is the social … as the issues that underlie what can be viewed as microcosmic versions (i.e., a relationship between two people) are the same kinds of conflicts and issues that underlie the global wars and social unrest we see in our world. While I believe great changes can be made on a global level through collective efforts, I also see putting our efforts into understanding and resolving conflict in our most immediate relationships as being the hugest and most pivotal of first steps to understanding the rest of the world, and doing so."
     Alanis Morissette has come a long way in a fairly short time. Growing up in Ottawa, she began singing and acting when she was 9 years old and was a cast member on the Nickelodeon show You Can't Do That On Television. As a teenager she released two albums of pop music that made her a Canadian success. But she soon tired of the genre and, at 19, relocated to California, where she recorded her monster breakthrough, 1995's Jagged Little Pill. It sold almost 20 million copies and made her the voice of scorned women—thanks to venomous tracks like the hit single "You Oughta Know." She toured the album for 18 months, then returned in 1998 with %Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie%. Upon its completion she remarked, "I see every recording I've done as a snapshot of that time in my life. I feel fulfilled when I feel the songs were inspired and representative of myself in the moment."
     In 1999, she produced her all-acoustic Alanis Unplugged, recorded before a live audience at New York's Brooklyn Academy of Music, featuring reworked versions of previous recordings and some unreleased songs. She expanded her boundaries by producing her videos and taking on acting roles, including the movie Dogma. She has also won seven Grammy Awards.
     Jagged Little Pill introduced her to international audiences as an angry young woman. Today, at 27, she says she has mellowed. "I'm not as freaked out by my own anger," she told USA Weekend. "I've been angry for so many years that it was really super-toxic in my body. I didn't want it to manifest in some huge disease because I wasn't able to communicate it. Now if something's bothering me, rather than being passive-aggressive about it, I deal with it directly."
     As she continues to wear her heart on her sleeve, albeit less vindictively, Morissette remains contentedly single—despite what her lyrics might imply. "I'm very happy in my own skin right now," she said, "and the last thing I want to do is start dating somebody. I need some time to myself. I'll definitely date, but I won't be in a committed, long-term relationship any time soon."
     Then again, recording tell-all albums doesn't make her social life any easier. "There's a ton of guys who wouldn't touch me with a 10-foot pole," she told Newsweek. "But for whatever reason, I continue meeting people who have no qualms about dating me. At this point, they must know what they're getting into; what comes with the package. It's the ultimate dating filter."