Alanis Morissette - The Singles Box (Warner) There is a sweetness to the version of You Oughtta Know that Morissette sang live at the Grammys: moody strings play in the background and the angry diva sounds almost forgiving.
The Singles Box is essentially gimmickry, mainly live versions of Morissette's songs which only highlight how similar her live performance is to her recordings. We are not given even one new song as a taster for the next album.
The box itself, with its video box shape and its five CDs elaborately folded appears, in the sober afternoon, to be intriguingly designed.
Late night, after wine, it is impossibly complicated. Better to have had all 20 songs on two CDs.
The best track is Your House live in Tokyo. The song, about exploring someone's private space, and being intoxicated by his absence, was on some versions of Jagged Little Pill but not on mine.
I'd buy The Box for Your House alone. But it is only for those who bought Jagged Little Pill, loved it, and now need something fairly new to play before they get something really new to play.
