In the 1990’s, Alanis Morisette was the voice of a generation. Her ‘95 album Jagged Little Pill sold over 33 million copies and at 21 years old, Morisette was the youngest person ever to receive the album of the year award. Her work was fueled by a unique sort of adolescent anger infused with love, pain, and defiance. 

It has been 25 years since the singer’s monumental rise to fame. Alanis Morisette is now a wife and mother of three. The music of Jagged Little Pill has been incorporated into a Tony-Nominated broadway musical, and in July 2020, Morisette released her ninth studio album, Such Pretty Forks in the Road. The album is a journey through the startling humanity and honesty of a woman who has lived twenty years underneath an ever-changing avalanche of fame. 

Reasons I Drink is the first single off of the album. It is a candid, eerily-catchy exploration of the singer’s struggle with alcoholism.

In the song, Morriette muses: “These are the reasons I drink / reasons I tell everybody I’m fine even though I am not. / These are the reasons I overdo it / I have been working since I can remember, since I was single digits”

The music video for the song features a surreal Alcoholics Anonymous Meeting attended by versions of Morisette from the past: she is the 21-year old young woman in the Ironic music video, appearing carefree but floundering under the trails of newfound fame and the difficulty of being a woman in Hollywood. She is a rare celebrity and a new mother, cradling a baby and struggling to cope with postpartum depression and eating disorders. The themes in this video are explored through later tracks in the album.

In the harrowing song Diagnosis, Alanis explores her own mental unraveling and experience with postpartum depression. The song is a slow lament, an acceptance of debilitation, and a resounding cry of solidarity to anyone who struggles with mental illness. 

The contrast between each song on Such Pretty Forks in the Road is what makes the album such an incredible work of art. Each track together serves to paint a multifaceted portrait that is not altogether desolate, yet not altogether hopeful. 

Reckoning is a song for survivors, abusers, and allies. It is a reference to Alanis’ 2002 track Hands Clean which explored a 14-year-old Alanis’ relationship with a much older man. At the time of its release, the lyrics of Hands Clean were extremely controversial and heavily criticized because of the lack of a platform for survivors of sexual abuse. But, as Alanis sings in Reckoning: “Brace, brace yourself for this reckoning day / I was once at a loss / now I stand at the gates.”

Despite the album’s many resounding songs, the most impactful track on Such Pretty Forks in the Road might just be Ablaze: a love letter to Alanis’ children. She sings to them of the world as she knows it, expressing the profound connection she feels to her children, and celebrating their individuality, and the chorus contains a beautiful dedication: my mission is to keep the light in your eyes ablaze.

Pedestal offers the last word. It is a mournful exploration of Alanis’ relationship to fame and the perception of herself as more than human. 

She sings, “One day you’ll see that you’ve never really seen me / One day you’ll find out that everything you dreamed of, wasn’t who stood before you / One day I won’t be craved the way you crave me now / as this pedestal crumbles down and crashes me to the ground.” 

Such Pretty Forks in the Road proves to the world that Alanis Morissette is still the resounding, timeless, and relevant voice she was 25 years ago. Her life and worldview may have changed, but her work stays the same: a testament to the power of raw, unadulterated humanity.