How perfect a choice is the Police's "King Of Pain" for Alanis Morissette's first high-profile cover version? Sting's abstract angst-fest clearly strikes a major chord with the woman who put the bleak into oblique, and, abetted by the Unplugged format, she turns in a gorgeous version.
Going Unplugged, no matter how premature or mystifying it may seem in career-move terms, is a productive musical move for Morissette, freshening the four over-familiar hits from Jagged Little Pill (main beneficiaries: "Head Over Feet" and especially a piano-based, stridency-softened "You Oughta Know") and emphasizing the melodiousness of the three Infatuation Junkie tracks (notably "Joining You"). On the other hand, the acoustic settings throw her characteristic syllable elongation and free-form declarations (will she ever meet a meter or rhyme scheme she can stick with?) into starker relief.
But there's no relief from the laundry lists of philosophical questions recited on all three new songs here. Among the ponderings on "These Are The Thoughts" is this poser: "Can blindly continued fear-induced regurgitated life-denying tradition be overcome?" Not without a portable phone, apparently, since in the same song she wonders, "Why do I feel cellularly alone?"
The strangest thing here, however, is that Morissette makes these indigestible masses of verbiage go down smoothly. For that alone, Unplugged deserves a plug.
All recordings courtesy of Maverick Records. ΓÇ£That I Would Be GoodΓÇ¥ written by A. N. Morissette and G. Ballard, courtesy of Universal MCA Music Publishing, a Division of Universal Studios Inc./1974 Music/Aerostation Corporation (ASCAP). ΓÇ£UninvitedΓÇ¥ written by A. N. Morissette, courtesy of Universal MCA Music Publishing, a Division of Universal Studios Inc./1974 Music (ASCAP). ΓÇ£You Ought To KnowΓÇ¥ written by A. N. Morissette and G. Ballard, courtesy of Songs of Universal, Inc./Vanhurst Place Music (BMI)/Universal-MCA Music Publishing a division of Universal Studios, Inc/Aerostation Corporation (ASCAP).
