ALANIS MORRISSETTE      LIVE ROCK CRITIC 25

Alanis Morriessette is quite different from most of the Rock and Roll community. Alanis is a vegan, she is Canadian and she has written a lot of songs and published numerous albums. Born in Ottawa Canada she was writing and releasing, “Alanis” her first pop rock album at the age of sixteen in 1991. In 1992 she released a second album “Now Is The Time”, the first two albums were released only in Canada. In 1995 “Jagged Little Pill” was released internationally and thanks to the hit single “You Ought To Know” the album sold 33 million copies, the second largest sale by a female artist.

                                                                             
                                                                               

Since her success in 1995 Alanis has collaborated with many musicians and released a number of albums which have garnered her five Grammies. Through Maverick Records Alanis released a number of albums, the last of which was “Flavours Of Enhancement”. Alanis has opened for The Rolling Stones.

On October 11 2011 Alanis declared on Facebook  that she was writing again with more than thirty tunes composed. Let us compare Alanis with other female Artists I watched for reviewing purposes.

                                                                         

I watched a Sheryl Crow live performance and a Stevie Nicks live performance. What struck me about the comparison between Alanis Morrissette and Sheryl Crow and Stevie Nicks was that the passion the energy and dynamic performance that Alanis Morrissette brings to her live performance is missing from Sheryl and Stevie. Possibly I am being unfair as Alanis is a lot younger than Crow and Nicks. I found Sheryl Crow’s vocal to be monotonous, as was Stevie Nick’s. Crow’s movements were definitely white girl can’t dance. Nick’s does a little better but she delivers a compromised dance performance where she moves around and spins around but its not the expressive free form Rock and Roll dance we expect from top flight performers when they dance on stage.

Alanis Morrissette is physically wild on stage, dancing with abandon and technical adherence to the nature of the lyrics and the style and content of the music. Alanis interprets her work with physical motion.

                                                                            

The composition of Alanis Morrissette tunes as performed on her HDNET concert in November 2011 is incredible, the composition is intellectually stimulating and it portraits real events in the real world. Alanis has also created and performed very different music for movie sound tracks and collaborations with other artists.

Morrissette’s band is a very interesting very expressive and very into the music group of talented musicians. There are numerous situations of interplay between the musicians, talented morphing and progressive changes with dynamic returns to the root of the music. I really like listening to and watching this band, they are very interesting as persons and musicians compared to many of the talentless  poseurs who populate so many artist’s backing bands.

Alanis Morrissette voice is expressive, lyrical and compelling. I saw no evidence of pre-recorded backing tracks or auto tune.

I reviewed “Robyn” who performed on Saturday Night Live Saturday December 10^th 2011. Robyn danced woodenly and mechanically, and that was not a style it was a deficiency. How did Robyn sing. Well she sang along with a pre-recorded track, I don’t know about you and what you think but I think that using pre-recorded tracks is an express route to the trash bin. Despite radical costuming and platform shoes, Robyn reeks of poseur. In addition, she plays with two drummers and a keyboardist who turns something off at the end of each performance. I wonder how much of the music is pre-recorded. In Robyn’s second number I heard whole bars of sequenced voice. At times Robyn voice could be heard just as clearly as her performance voice and she was not singing. Bankrupt as the process of singing along with your pre-recorded music is, not being able to sing along accurately is just pathetic, what is so good about Robyn that she should appear on Saturday Night LIVE with pre-recorded material, and what sort of rubes cheer madly for such a performance. This was not an athletic event.

Continuing my bewilderment at how laurels are handed out and why some bands get to appear on Nationally broadcast programs, the Black Keys performed on Steven Colbert show. The Black Keys just won three Grammies “I’ve Got A Love That Keeps Me Waiting” is repeated over and over again in their performance on Steven Colbert. The music is sparse. Dated, dated guitar. What goes on is the choice random or is it corrupt. Worst of all with the Black Keys was the unsophisticated composition which left me completely untransformed. The Black Keys are making the rounds of the late night shows and variety shows. Is this some totally financial procedure. Are the Grammies fixed, do Corporate Gnomes hand out bags of money or hookers or drugs. The selection process strikes me as a bunch of bullshit.