Eight Easy Steps
Encyclopedia
"Eight Easy Steps" is a rock
song written by Alanis Morissette
for her sixth studio album
So-Called Chaos
. The album's opening track, it was released in 2004
as the So-Called Chaos' s third single
. The song may be seen as discussing self-help
, with the message that it is the "course of a lifetime", but the help that is actually "offered" in the song is ironical throughout, with lines like "How to lie to yourself and thereby to everyone else" or "How to control someone to be a carbon copy of you".
The song reached number nine on the Billboard
Hot Dance Music/Club Play and number twenty-seven on the Adult Top 40.
and moves at a moderately fast 132 beats per minute. Its verses are set to a Middle Eastern
beat
. Morissette's vocal range
spans nearly an octave and a half, from A♭3 to C5.
gave the song a negative review, finding it a "flaccid and innocuous" attempt to recreate the hard rock
sound of her 1995 single "You Oughta Know
". PopMatters
disagreed, commenting that the chorus
's "one shining moment of Alanis Anger" was one of the album's few energetic moments. The New York Times
called the song "triumphant", and The Guardian
found the song's distortion
effective, as well as its "Nine Inch Nail-like metallic
rage".
was directed by Liz Friedlander
. The video opens with a scene of Morissette performing with her backing band. It then presents sequences from Morissette's previous music videos, television appearances like You Can't Do That on TV, and home video
s in reverse chronological order. The scenes are digitally edited to create the appearance that Morissette had sung "Eight Easy Steps" in them. It took Morissette over 16 hours, to recreate her facial expressions from the clips. Friedlander commented that "It was eerie to watch the footage of present day Alanis run side by side with the early footage…Her ability to match her old actions was uncanny." The video peaked at #11 on the VH1 Top 20 Video Countdown.
A second acoustic single was planned with more tracks from the Vancouver Sessions. However, it was scrapped before it was released.
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
song written by Alanis Morissette
Alanis Morissette
Alanis Nadine Morissette is a Canadian-American singer-songwriter, guitarist, record producer, and actress. She has won 16 Juno Awards and seven Grammy Awards, was nominated for two Golden Globe Awards and also shortlisted for an Academy Award nomination...
for her sixth studio album
Studio album
A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...
So-Called Chaos
So-Called Chaos
-Personnel:*Alanis Morissette – vocals, producer, piano, keyboards, art direction*Eric Avery – bass*Chris Lord-Alge – mixing*Kenny Aronoff – drums*Paul Bushnell – bass*Scott Gordon – programming, engineer, drum programming*Bill Lane – assistant engineer...
. The album's opening track, it was released in 2004
2004 in music
See also:* 2004 in music Record labels established in 2004-January:*January 1**The Vienna New Year's Concert is conducted by Riccardo Muti.**Kurt Nilsen wins World Idol....
as the So-Called Chaos
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
. The song may be seen as discussing self-help
Self-help
Self-help, or self-improvement, is a self-guided improvement—economically, intellectually, or emotionally—often with a substantial psychological basis. There are many different self-help movements and each has its own focus, techniques, associated beliefs, proponents and in some cases, leaders...
, with the message that it is the "course of a lifetime", but the help that is actually "offered" in the song is ironical throughout, with lines like "How to lie to yourself and thereby to everyone else" or "How to control someone to be a carbon copy of you".
The song reached number nine on the Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
Hot Dance Music/Club Play and number twenty-seven on the Adult Top 40.
Music and structure
"Eight Easy Steps" is a pop rock song composed in the key of A♭ major. It is written in common timeCommon Time
"Common Time" is a science fiction short story written by James Blish. It first appeared in the August 1953 issue of Science Fiction Quarterly and has been reprinted several times: in the 1959 short-story collection Galactic Cluster; in The Testament of Andros ; in The Penguin Science Fiction...
and moves at a moderately fast 132 beats per minute. Its verses are set to a Middle Eastern
Middle Eastern music
The music of Western Asia and North Africa spans across a vast region, from Morocco to Afghanistan, and its influences can be felt even further afield. Middle Eastern music influenced the music of India, as well as Central Asia, Spain, Southern Italy, the Caucasus and the Balkans, as in chalga...
beat
Beat (music)
The beat is the basic unit of time in music, the pulse of the mensural level . In popular use, the beat can refer to a variety of related concepts including: tempo, meter, rhythm and groove...
. Morissette's vocal range
Vocal range
Vocal range is the measure of the breadth of pitches that a human voice can phonate. Although the study of vocal range has little practical application in terms of speech, it is a topic of study within linguistics, phonetics, and speech and language pathology, particularly in relation to the study...
spans nearly an octave and a half, from A♭3 to C5.
Critical reception
Stylus MagazineStylus Magazine
Stylus Magazine was an online music and film magazine launched in 2002. It featured long-form music journalism, four daily music reviews, movie reviews, a number of different podcasts, an MP3 blog, and a text blog....
gave the song a negative review, finding it a "flaccid and innocuous" attempt to recreate the hard rock
Hard rock
Hard rock is a loosely defined genre of rock music which has its earliest roots in mid-1960s garage rock, blues rock and psychedelic rock...
sound of her 1995 single "You Oughta Know
You Oughta Know
"You Oughta Know" is a alternative rock song, which also is known for its grunge effect styles in it. The instruments held in it are guitars, electric guitars, drums and drum machine...
". PopMatters
PopMatters
PopMatters is an international webzine of cultural criticism that covers many aspects of popular culture. PopMatters publishes reviews, interviews, and detailed essays on most cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, films, books, video games, comics, sports, theater,...
disagreed, commenting that the chorus
Refrain
A refrain is the line or lines that are repeated in music or in verse; the "chorus" of a song...
's "one shining moment of Alanis Anger" was one of the album's few energetic moments. The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
called the song "triumphant", and The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
found the song's distortion
Distortion (guitar)
Distortion effects create "warm", "dirty" and "fuzzy" sounds by compressing the peaks of a musical instrument's sound wave and adding overtones. The three principal types of distortion effects are overdrive, distortion and fuzz. Distortion effects are sometimes called “gain” effects, as distorted...
effective, as well as its "Nine Inch Nail-like metallic
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
rage".
Music video
The song's music videoMusic video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
was directed by Liz Friedlander
Liz Friedlander
Liz Friedlander is an American film, music video and television director.Originally from New York, Friedlander moved to Pennsylvania to attend the Drama Conservatory school at Carnegie Mellon University...
. The video opens with a scene of Morissette performing with her backing band. It then presents sequences from Morissette's previous music videos, television appearances like You Can't Do That on TV, and home video
Home video
Home video is a blanket term used for pre-recorded media that is either sold or rented/hired for home cinema entertainment. The term originates from the VHS/Betamax era but has carried over into current optical disc formats like DVD and Blu-ray Disc and, to a lesser extent, into methods of digital...
s in reverse chronological order. The scenes are digitally edited to create the appearance that Morissette had sung "Eight Easy Steps" in them. It took Morissette over 16 hours, to recreate her facial expressions from the clips. Friedlander commented that "It was eerie to watch the footage of present day Alanis run side by side with the early footage…Her ability to match her old actions was uncanny." The video peaked at #11 on the VH1 Top 20 Video Countdown.
Track listing
- "Eight Easy Steps" (Thick Dick Filter Mix) – 6:56
- "Eight Easy Steps" (Jez Colin & Flipper Dalton Remix) – 6:35
- "Eight Easy Steps" (The Orange Factory Remix) – 6:58
- "Eight Easy Steps" (Smitty & Gabriel D. Vine Remix) – 7:03
A second acoustic single was planned with more tracks from the Vancouver Sessions. However, it was scrapped before it was released.
Charts
| Chart | Position |
|---|---|
| Billboard Adult Top 40 (U.S.) | 27 |
| Billboard Hot Singles Sales (U.S.) | 37 |
| Billboard Hot Dance Club Play (U.S.) | 9 |
| Billboard Hot Dance Singles Sales Hot Dance Singles Sales Hot Dance Singles Sales is a chart released weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States, established in 1985. It measures the sale of commercially released singles that deal with dance music and remixes... (U.S.) |
3 |
| Spanish Singles Chart | 40 |
| World Dance / Trance Top 30 Singles | 9 |
Credits and personnel
- Vocals: Alanis Morissette
- GuitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
: Joel Shearer - ProducersRecord producerA record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
: Alanis Morissette, John ShanksJohn ShanksJohn Matthew Shanks is a modern rock writer and Grammy Award–winning producer.Born in New York City, Shanks moved to Los Angeles when he was 17....
, Tim ThorneyTim ThorneyTim Thorney is a Canadian guitarist, songwriter, and record producer, currently working out of Tattoo Sound + Music in Toronto.-History:Thorney first came to prominence as a recording engineer and songwriter. In 1981, he co-wrote most of Lisa DalBello's Drastic Measures album... - Audio mixingAudio mixing (recorded music)In audio recording, audio mixing is the process by which multiple recorded sounds are combined into one or more channels, most commonly two-channel stereo. In the process, the source signals' level, frequency content, dynamics, and panoramic position are manipulated and effects such as reverb may...
: Chris Lord-AlgeChris Lord-AlgeChris Lord-Alge is a mixer who has worked on various albums. He is the brother of Tom Lord-Alge, another audio engineer. Chris Lord-Alge is known for his extreme use of dynamic range compression in both hardware and software plug-in versions....
, Adam Schiff