Morissette on the rise again

By Elysa Gardner
USA TODAY

After the pressure of her second album, "Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie," Alanis Morissette says her third, "Under Rug Swept," has a sense of integration and acceptance. Associated Press

"It's understandable if people are speaking in relative terms," says the singer/songwriter, who first hit it big with "Jagged Little Pill," a coming-of-age manifesto released in 1995. "But I also know that every song I've ever written has been a real snapshot of my life, so there's no one song I feel more connected to than the others."

"Hands Clean," the first single from her new CD, "Under Rug Swept," due Tuesday, is already one of the top five most-played songs on adult top-40 and modern adult-contemporary radio and is poised to enter the top 20 in the larger mainstream top-40 format. The song might seem to have particular personal resonance: It was inspired by a relationship with a much older man whom Morissette, 27, met during her years as a fledgling teen star in Canada. The man's voice is represented in the song's verses, attempting to justify what could be viewed as exploitative behavior: "If it weren't for your maturity/None of this would have happened ... /Just make sure you don't tell on me/Especially to members of your family."

"I had been silencing myself about it at the request of the person who the song's about for a very long time," Morissette says. "I wasn't motivated by seeking revenge. It was a way for me to liberate myself from pushing something away."

Morissette does not disclose the name of the man in the song or in conversation. "It was just someone I worked with in the industry," she says.

"The relationship was professional and creative if I can call some of it that, and sexual and everything. It was all sort of connected together in ways that make me think, in retrospect, 'OK, that's a little complicated for an emotionally young person to deal with.' "

The singer is heartened by the obvious connection others have made with her story. "I haven't spoken to many people about the song, but the very thought of having a young woman — or young man, for that matter — feel validated in an experience that is at all similar to what I went through, and not feel isolated or like a freak, is gratifying beyond words."

Morissette also is pleased with the progress that "Under Rug Swept" represents in general. Her last album, she says, "was written under such pressure. There was such a rebellion on my end in terms of how I structured (songs). It was my way of saying, 'I know what everyone expects of me, but I'm just gonna do what I want.' And I did that with a vengeance. I was also embracing spirituality in a way that I had never done. Now there's this sense of integration and an acceptance that today is today. I don't have to worry about who I was 15 years ago or who I'm going to be in seven years. I can just focus on who I am right now and allow that to be what it is."