There are two distinctly different topics that fuel Alanis Morissette's music. The first, as anybody who's listened to mainstream or alternative radio knows, is relationships. Whether being in love or the fallout after love, Alanis has never shied away from being explicit in her details as well as her earnestness. The second subject of her music revolves around spiritual elements, exemplified best on 1998's "Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie". However, rarely does Alanis fuse these ideas together. Maybe she didn't have the time or the inspiration, but there's a certain bewilderment to why she waited twenty years into her career to marry these subjects. You don't have to think hard though, as the four years since 2008's "Flavors of Entanglement" have brought a husband and a son into Alanis' life. Surely, domestic bliss can spark creativity in anybody, but happiness isn't something that comes naturally to Alanis. She flirts with it, but cannot fully navigate its peaks and plateaus. Still, that doesn't mean that "Havoc and Bright Lights" is not a pleasing listen, at least not in heavy doses. Alanis starts the album with the hooky, yet phoned-in, "Guardian", and follows it with the hooky and memorable "Woman Down", a subtle approach to feminism. She then transitions into the sparkling ballad "Til You", no doubt one of many cuts dedicated to husband and son. With these first three songs, you start to think she's mastered the relationship/spirit fusion, but then reality comes crashing down with the fourth song "Celebrity", the inevitable hard-rock number dedicated to Alanis' worldview. Thankfully it's only one of two rock numbers here, the other being the weird tale of drug addiction ("Numb"). The rest of the record bounces back between soothing adult contemporary and soft pop/rock, gently pushing its hooks forward while retaining its surface pleasure. And that's fine, with several messy break-ups under her belt, Alanis deserves to have a record dedicated to partnership, since this results in some reasonably smooth grooves ("Empathy" and "Win and Win" being the best example of her new-found bliss). But with all this exertion to create her happiness, "Havoc and Bright Lights" does suffer. As aforementioned, she's not familiar with benevolence nearly as much as she is with despair. Unfortunately, this strain comes in the last stretch of the record. True the longest tracks "Havoc" and "Win and Win" go down easier than expected, but underneath the surface, Alanis just doesn't sound interested anymore. This leaves "Receive" to be redundant and "Edge of Evolution" to be unfulfilled in its potential. It's a far stretch from the beginning of the album, where "Guardian" and "Woman Down" do sound invested and cheery, what the whole album was supposed to be. Also as mentioned, once the gaudily dark "Celebrity" rears its head, the rest of the album never recovers, even with songs as charming as "Empathy" along the way. Oddly enough, even the album's darkest moments that recall "Jagged Little Pill" can't bring Alanis out of her slump, since they're surrounded by an airy atmosphere and just sound awkwardly assembled. Perhaps more songs like the first two on the album would've done the trick, but "Numb" says it all. Alanis would rather be comfortable than frazzled or ecstatic, and most of "Havoc and Bright Lights" reflects that. From its cover of a warm, cheery Alanis to the bubbling sheen, marriage and motherhood have tempered her. She hasn't lost her spunk, but the happy songs on this record never reach highs like "Hand in my Pocket", and the gloomier tracks pale in comparison to "You Oughta Know" or "Not as We". However, that doesn't stop "Havoc and Bright Lights" to still be a worthy listen, as there are plenty of good moments to solidify Alanis' comeback, as well as its place as one of the most agreeable albums of 2012.
Recommended Tracks in Bold:
1. Guardian 2. Woman Down 3. Til You
4. Celebrity 5. Empathy 6.
Lens
7. Spiral 8. Numb 9. Havoc
10. Win and Win 11. Receive 12. Edge of
Evolution
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