feeling listless

Music Knock Alanis Morissette all you want you unintiated masses but she can write a catchy chorus. Granted I'm singing in her choir but I've already got her new single trying to break out of the edges of my brain and it was only released yesterday. Everything, taken from her soon to be new album So-Called Chaos is yet another development of a style which has slowly flittered onwards since the mid-ninities -- a middle ground between the rock and ethnic sounds she's been experimenting with for the past few albums. Not that the singer has cut back on the verbage. Only Alanis could make a lyric like 'I blame everyone else not my own partaking / my passive aggressive-ness can be devastating', put music behind it, make it scan and make it beautiful. Really positive about the album now and happy that we might be able to put Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie behind us.

Avil Lavigne also released yesterday with a piece which flirts with trying to be Alanis by numbers. Regular readers will know about my love/hate relationship with the new pixie -- I'm probably far too old for her and I know intrinsically she's been plucked and developed to appeal for the markets Britney, Christina and Norah can't bust into. But like all of those there is a certain currency in having easy music -- something you can just listen and yes sing along to. So here I am with the other single I bought yesterday. Don't Tell Me is basically more of the same -- not at all surprising -- verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus fade to end. Lacks the emotional intensity of 'I'm With You' but not a total loss. What niggles is that it feels like an album track -- something from the middle to pass over time between singles. But this is the single which suggests that the new album may have issues. We'll see. The b-side, an acoustic version of the same song feels better to me, less produced, less vocally perfect -- and Avril can sing better live than ever. Perhaps a miagi style mentor has been getting to practice.