ALBUMS

Alanis Morissette

Such Pretty Forks In The Road SONY

Piano balladry and serious soul-searching for album nine.

Even after all this time, the furious first impression of 1995’s Jagged Little Pill has Alanis Morissette trapped in amber for many as the angry and vengeful young woman of You Oughta Know. That, clearly, is unfair, and her ninth album is a measured, but unwaveringly honest, portrait of middle age with all its elation and tribulations.

Honesty, of course, has always been Morissette’s calling card, and on this collection of glossy, piano-led songs, in Diagnosi, she gives an account of postpartum (‘baby blues’) depression that is a tiny feminist triumph – a depiction of a struggle countless women face but which is rarely discussed. Rather than looking at big world issues, this is a record of the small, quotidian struggles that conspire to grind a person down, from the self-medication of Reasons I Drink, to the acceptance that life can be overwhelming on Losing The Plot.

Crucially, though, for all the sadness and doubt, there’s an optimism at work on this album, a determination to survive. This is a woman who’s facing the waves, accepting their power and size, and preparing to surf them as best she can. Which is why moments of joy such as Ablaze – a pure-hearted celebration of motherhood – shine with an even brighter light in the midst of the darkness.

Emma Johnston

Various

A Fistful More Of Rock’N’Roll Volume 3 SCREAMING CROW

Another glorious pile of junk (rock).

Back in the noughts, true believer Sal Canzonieri, of the deathless Electric Frankenstein, began compiling the crucial Fistful Of Rock’N’Roll CD compilations, the Nuggets of the nascent junk/action rock scene spurned by underground US punk’n’roll acts like The Dwarves and Candy Snatchers and the hoary wave of retro-rock from Scandinavian heavies like Turbonegro and Gluecifer. Canzonieri managed 13 volumes in just under a decade. After taking a decade-long breather, he’s back with the third in his comeback series. Without the steady trickle of overstuffed speedball rock CD comps, it started to feel like maybe the ‘action rock’ scene had finally run out of fuel, left to choke on its own dust as the kids moved on to something horrible. Well, the latter part is probably true, but, as this sprawling, messy, wondrous clobbering of a compilation demonstrates, the action is still go.

There are so many acts worthy of mention that this review would be over before I got to half of ‘em, but suffice to say that Poison Boys, Dirty Denims, Flexx Bronco and the Tracy Lords are all back-patch worthy true rockers that will restore any lost faith.

Sleazegrinder

Fontaines D.C.

A Hero’s Death PARTISAN

Dublin scene pioneers charge on for glory.

Fontaines D.C., the frontrunners of the emerging Dublin punk scene, who summoned a typhoon of acclaim around their debut last year with its Joycean visions of the city’s street life and dreams of escape, have curiously been citing the Beach Boys as an suggests placid waters turning turbulent, and is a thunderous sea-squall of a song – but there is a sun-kissed haze to the lyricism of and that reflects the band shaking off the Dublin drizzle and embracing wider, brighter horizons.