All My CDs, pt 85: Flavors of Entanglement

Flavors of Entanglement - Alanis Morissette

After So-Called Chaos, I gradually became distracted by other artists that I discovered on the wayward path from adolescence to adulthood, and regrettably forgot about my first favorite musician for several years. It wasn’t until 2013 that I thought to check back, and found out that she’d released two albums while I wasn’t looking, and so I had some catching up to do.

I remember being disappointed. Flavors of Entanglement apparently had been produced during, and was mostly about, the aftermath of a breakup between Morissette and her fiance of several years. This means that the best time for me to have encountered it would have been in 2012, when I was myself recovering from the end of a long-term committed relationship. In retrospect, I might have been much more into songs like Moratorium, Torch, Not as We, and Underneath if I’d still been in the thick of similar experiences. Not As We is a particularly potent expression of the life-desolation and the task of rebuilding one’s identity after such a change.

Then there’s Giggling Again For No Reason, which for the first time seems to celebrate solitude and independence and the sheer joy of leaving, to a trancy techno beat:

Oh this state of ecstasy 
Nothing but road could ever give to me 
This liberty wind in my face 
And I’m giggling again for no reason 

All grief eventually gives way to acceptance and, even, to newfound bliss.

But this independence isn’t all that life entails. With lyrics so quintessentially hippy they have to be sincere, Citizen of the Planet describes the ideal state as oneness with all of existence, and a community of all people living in peace.

My number-one favorite, to the point where I can’t help but grin like an idiot when it comes on, is Incomplete. Especially when I’m running and on my fifth mile. Probably because it compares the endless struggle toward enlightenment and self-perfection with a very long run, complete with sweat. So much sweat.

Next: Havoc and Bright Lights