Under Rug Swept
Encyclopedia
Under Rug Swept is the fifth album
by Canadian singer-songwriter Alanis Morissette
. Released by Maverick Records
in the United States on February 26, 2002 and in the United Kingdom a day earlier (see 2002 in music
), it was the first album Morissette had written and produced on her own. It debuted at number one on charts in 12 countries, including Canada
, and produced the singles "Hands Clean
" and "Precious Illusions
". Sales, however, did not match those of Morissette's previous two studio albums.
not knowing whether she was going to write songs herself or with someone else. In the first week of her stay she had written seven songs alone, and she described the writing process as "really fast and accelerated". As on her previous albums, Morissette took a stream-of-consciousness approach to the songwriting. She wrote the music and lyrics at the same time, spending around twenty minutes or less on each song, and recorded the vocals during the writing process, in one or two takes. "I really wanted to make sure that I wrote in the studio so that, while I was writing, I could be singing it at the same time", she said. According to Morissette, she had a "little space station" with a keyboard
, an acoustic
, an electric
, her journal and a microphone set up, and everything was recorded onto DAT
. Morissette had not planned to produce an album on her own, saying "It was just a matter of when it would happen organically". She "kept things from becoming overwhelming" by refraining from cross-connecting her producing, songwriting and performing duties.
Production of the album was delayed when Morissette became involved in disputes with executives at Maverick Records after she testified at U.S. Government hearings against artist-unfriendly record contract practices. As she put it, she had to go through lawyers to "have a dialogue with people" and take extended period of time to "have one little thing figured out". Because she was accustomed to having the producers on her albums act as "the buffer to the outside world" during recording, she found it a challenge to handle the situation on her own. "I was trying to be isolated enough to tap into my artistry while keeping people at bay who don't know fuck all about nurturance", she said. Eventually, it became "too much" for Morissette and she took negotiations into her own hands, which meant she had to halt her work on the album: "I had to be willing to throw the record away and not ever release it."
Despite the relatively low sales of Morissette's previous two albums, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie and MTV Unplugged (1999), compared to those of her international debut album, Jagged Little Pill
(1995), Maverick Records considered her a strong commercial asset and were concerned that she would leave because of the disputes and release the album on another label. For a time Morissette was threatening to leave Maverick (according to Entertainment Weekly
), until label founder Madonna
intervened and persuaded her to stay. During the delay, Morissette brought in musicians such as bassists Eric Avery
(formerly of Jane's Addiction
) and Flea
(of Red Hot Chili Peppers
), Dean DeLeo
(guitarist for Stone Temple Pilots
) and Me'shell Ndegeocello
to play on the album. After this period, in response to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, she previewed the track "Utopia" that she wrote in January 2001 on her website.
During the making of the album, Morissette wrote 27 songs, which she eventually narrowed down to 17. When she was mixing
and producing the album, every time she reached the 11th track she, as she put it, "would shut down. My brain would shut off and I just felt like it was information overload ... I didn't want to overwhelm myself or anyone else in the process of trying to cram them all onto the double CD." She planned for several of the excluded songs to be released as single B-sides or on a separate EP
to be released after the album; eight of them were released on a CD/DVD package, Feast on Scraps
, released in late 2002. "I just could not face the idea of letting all of these songs go", she had said. "They're all precious to me. It's just a matter of finding the right framework in which to share them with the world."
reservation: "The sense of community the Navajo people
really focus on, there's a similar sense of community I felt when I traveled, when we toured through the Middle East
", she explained. "It permeates what I yearn for and I try to create it as best as I can through the songs". She described the album as melodically and sonically "more structured" than her previous album, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie
(1998).
The first track, "21 Things I Want in a Lover", features Morissette listing the qualities she looks for in a partner. "There's a part of this song where I'm joking, but there's a whole part of this song where I'm dead serious", she said. "Because the palm sweating, heart palpitating beginnings of a relationship often result in a huge amount of incompatibility, so the concept of compatibility is so much more important to me as I get older." "Narcissus" describes, as Morissette puts it, "that dichotomy of loving someone and really wanting it to work and wanting to bridge the gap and bridge the chasm and, yet at the same time, being totally repulsed by the qualities that are being presented and the pain that comes from it." She said the intention of writing "Hands Clean
" was "to get to a place where I could be as truthful and as honest as I possibly could be about certain relationships in my past ... oftentimes I feel by not speaking the truth, by being silent, there's an element of an untruth in that ... [it] sometimes can feel just as horrible as a lie to me."
"Flinch
", the fourth track, was written about an experience Morissette had during which she almost ran into a man who had a profound effect on her: "I was surprised at how many years had past but still I was responding to the situation as though I had been spending time with him two minutes earlier ... I do believe that I will be able to get to a point where hearing his name or even running into him or hearing from him won't trigger me as much as it did and still does." With "So Unsexy
", Morissette said she was "really trying to get into the underbelly of some of my insecurities and why little tiny things that are innocuous and inconsequential are translated in my own mind as to be taken so personally ... as long as I have my own back, it's not as scary and it's not as horrifying." In "Precious Illusions
" she discusses "the difference between really being alive and really embracing the reason why I'm here on this earth versus my just being asleep and sleep walking and accepting the status quo and accepting somewhat of a suffering mentality to being here. It really is my responsibility to distinguish the difference between the two and choose which one I want."
Track seven on the album, "That Particular Time", documents a breakup and "the three distinct chapters in the relationship" Morissette was going through. "[Love] took many different forms, and I was beating myself up for a long time for being in a relationship that just didn't feel right", she said. "But then I realized that it was a very loving act for me to stick it out for a minute or two to really kind of see whether there was something worth continuing to explore in a romantic way." She said of "A Man", which is written from a male point-of-view as a response to "Narcissus", "For once I try to feel a bit of empathy and to imagine how it feels being a man in these confusing times ... I try to react as an honourable man to the vibes of erroneous machos who are damaging the image of my sex." "You Owe Me Nothing in Return" is, in Morissette's words, "about the real definition of what love is ... wanting for someone that you love what they want for themselves. And at the same time not sacrificing my own life and my thoughts and my own beliefs. Supporting someone in their choices and at the same time being able to express what mine are, even if they differ, is the ultimate healthy, loving interaction."
The tenth and penultimate track, "Surrendering
", was the last song Morissette wrote for the album. According to her, it is "about the gratitude that I feel for someone tapping into the courage that it takes to allow themselves to be loved and to drop the defenses and fears ... And how thrilling it is for me to be able to be let in that kind of way ... It's a very peaceful, joyful song". Morissette considers "Utopia" a summary of the feminine and masculine elements in the relationship chronicled in the album: "For me, it's like they're sitting together in the same car and are finally driving down the same road in the same direction and there's a meeting of both worlds." She said that when she wrote it, she knew it would be the last track.
Morissette wrote several political songs such as "Awakening Americans" and "Symptoms" during the making of the album, but she decided not to include such material in spite of an online petition lobbying for their release. Morissette said she doesn't "resonate" with overtly political songs because they are "removed too much" from her personal experiences: "I love sitting up at two in the morning talking religion, but when it comes to my songs, it's just rambling, soapbox, obnoxious", she said. ("Awakening Americans" and "Symptoms" were released as B-side
s.)
described the album as "supreme" and "very human ... [it] satisfies with moments of darkness, enlightenment, anger, bittersweet tension, and happiness ... Although 2002 is still young, consider Under Rug Swept one of the year's best." Q
magazine said the album was "a smart shot across the bows ... some of the most inviting music of her career ... Morissette has fashioned a lyrical Trojan Horse
to be wheeled into unsuspecting homes for months to come." Robert Christgau
wrote, "The pop-rock here lacks the faux-punk edge [on Jagged Little Pill] ... But Morissette instantly demonstrates her gift for the catchy ... topping memorable verse with indelible chorus, she's a self-actualized nut who goes for what she wants, exactly as pretentious as the college girls she represents for." According to LA Weekly
, the album "is Alanis Morissette in top form, exercising her God-given right to vent and sound beautiful doing so."
Other critical appraisals were less favorable. Rolling Stone
, in a three-star review, wrote "The music is brawny and meticulous ... [but] Under Rug Swept just about drowns in psychobabble. While the tone of the songs, and the grain of Morissette's voice, promise intimacy, there's hardly a private detail anywhere." Entertainment Weekly
said "the album's garbled title is also preparation for some of the clumsiest lyrics to be heard on a pop record in years ... The songs are riddled with such overwritten Psych 101 ruminations." The Village Voice
criticised the lyrics, saying "Much like even non-football fans used to be mesmerized by [Howard] Cosell
's genius for never using two words when 23 would do, you don't have to be a love-damaged 17-year-old girl to find Under Rug Swepts dense verbiage a trip. Words tumble forth and arrange themselves kaleidoscopically into all sorts of unusual categories ... I'm just not sure that pop music should come out of a thesaurus." NME
called it "a tedious album" with "overwrought folk-rock like 'Surrendering' and 'Hands Clean' destined for a thousand organic juice bars. Lyrically, it's often hilarious ... This record moves way beyond armchair psychology — in fact, there are armchairs that have a cannier grasp of the mind."
Under Rug Swept received a Juno Award
nomination in the category of "Pop Album of the Year
". Morissette herself won the "Jack Richardson Producer of the Year" award for the songs "Hands Clean" and "So Unsexy", and she was nominated in the "Artist of the Year
" category. (For more information, see Juno Awards of 2003
.)
was quoted as saying that because of the popularity of artists such as Radiohead
and Staind
, it was a "good year for rock ... It's not just one kind of rock that's connecting right now — the palette is varied. For an artist [such as Morissette] who comes from rock, this could be a fertile time." Other industry insiders said it may become a commercial return to form for Morissette; The Record
noted Morissette's age- and gender-transcendent appeal, the "smart" lyrics on the album and the appropriateness of its "soulful introspection and spiritual awareness" in a post-9/11 society, and how Morissette "stands out from everyone else on radio ... there are few artists addressing relationships in a serious way, especially from a female point of view."
>
"Hands Clean
", the album's first single
, began receiving radio airplay in North America in January 2002, and it debuted at number one in Canada. It also reached number 1 in New Zealand. It peaked inside the top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100
in the U.S., where it was most successful at Adult Top 40 and Hot AC radio; in one week more Hot AC stations added the single to their playlists than any other song in history. It was considered a comeback single for Morissette, and it was her most successful single since 1998 in most countries, reaching the top ten in Australia
and the top 20 in the United Kingdom
. For February, the album's month of release, Morissette was "Artist of the Month" on AOL Music.
Under Rug Swept entered the Canadian albums chart at number one with first week sales of 35,000 copies, and the CRIA
certified it platinum the following month for shipments of 100,000. In the U.S. the album sold 215,000 copies in its first week, debuting at number one on the Billboard 200
chart during a busy sales week following the 2002 Grammy Awards ceremony; it stayed in the top spot for a week. Within a month of release it had sold 500,000 copies, and the RIAA
certified it platinum for shipments of over one million. Under Rug Swept debuted at number one in 12 countries, including Germany
, Japan
and Australia. It debuted at number two in France and the United Kingdom, where the BPI
certified it gold for shipping 100,000 copies.
The album stayed in the top 20 on the Billboard 200 for five weeks and on the chart for 24. A second single, "Precious Illusions
", was released to radio in May 2002 and reached number four in Canada, but it failed to chart on the U.S. Hot 100 or inside the top 40 in Australia or the UK. Later in 2002 Morissette embarked on a world tour, which did not pick up album sales. In August she performed at the V2002
festival in England. After the failure of "Precious Illusions", Maverick did not commercially release any more singles from the album, although "So Unsexy
" was tentatively slated as the third single at one point. Promotional singles were issued internationally: "Flinch
" and "So Unsexy" in Brazil
, "21 Things I Want in a Lover
" in Latin America
, "Surrendering
" in Canada, and "Utopia
" in the U.S.
As of September 2008 the album had sold 1,017,000 copies in the U.S., half the amount sold by Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie by the same date. According to a Maverick Records press release, Under Rug Swept had sold 3.8 million copies worldwide by February 2004.
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
by Canadian singer-songwriter 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...
. Released by Maverick Records
Maverick Records
Maverick Recording Company is an American record label owned and operated by Warner Music Group, and distributed through Warner Bros. Records.-Company history:...
in the United States on February 26, 2002 and in the United Kingdom a day earlier (see 2002 in music
2002 in music
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 2002.-Events:*February 3 – U2 perform during the halftime show for Super Bowl XXXVI...
), it was the first album Morissette had written and produced on her own. It debuted at number one on charts in 12 countries, including Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, and produced the singles "Hands Clean
Hands Clean
"Hands Clean" is a song by Canadian recording artist and songwriter Alanis Morissette for her fifth studio album Under Rug Swept . It was released as the lead single of the album. The song was written and produced by Morissette herself...
" and "Precious Illusions
Precious Illusions
"Precious Illusions" is a song written and produced by Alanis Morissette, and recorded for her sixth album Under Rug Swept . It released as the album's second single in mid-2002 ; CD1 was released on August 5 and CD2 followed on October 29.Its lyrics describe a conflict between idealism and...
". Sales, however, did not match those of Morissette's previous two studio albums.
Background and production
Before recording of the album began, when she hadn't written songs or journal entries for nine months, Morissette went to TorontoToronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
not knowing whether she was going to write songs herself or with someone else. In the first week of her stay she had written seven songs alone, and she described the writing process as "really fast and accelerated". As on her previous albums, Morissette took a stream-of-consciousness approach to the songwriting. She wrote the music and lyrics at the same time, spending around twenty minutes or less on each song, and recorded the vocals during the writing process, in one or two takes. "I really wanted to make sure that I wrote in the studio so that, while I was writing, I could be singing it at the same time", she said. According to Morissette, she had a "little space station" with a keyboard
Electronic keyboard
An electronic keyboard is an electronic or digital keyboard instrument.The major components of a typical modern electronic keyboard are:...
, an acoustic
Acoustic guitar
An acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only an acoustic sound board. The air in this cavity resonates with the vibrational modes of the string and at low frequencies, which depend on the size of the box, the chamber acts like a Helmholtz resonator, increasing or decreasing the volume of the sound...
, an electric
Electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
, her journal and a microphone set up, and everything was recorded onto DAT
Digital Audio Tape
Digital Audio Tape is a signal recording and playback medium developed by Sony and introduced in 1987. In appearance it is similar to a compact audio cassette, using 4 mm magnetic tape enclosed in a protective shell, but is roughly half the size at 73 mm × 54 mm × 10.5 mm. As...
. Morissette had not planned to produce an album on her own, saying "It was just a matter of when it would happen organically". She "kept things from becoming overwhelming" by refraining from cross-connecting her producing, songwriting and performing duties.
Production of the album was delayed when Morissette became involved in disputes with executives at Maverick Records after she testified at U.S. Government hearings against artist-unfriendly record contract practices. As she put it, she had to go through lawyers to "have a dialogue with people" and take extended period of time to "have one little thing figured out". Because she was accustomed to having the producers on her albums act as "the buffer to the outside world" during recording, she found it a challenge to handle the situation on her own. "I was trying to be isolated enough to tap into my artistry while keeping people at bay who don't know fuck all about nurturance", she said. Eventually, it became "too much" for Morissette and she took negotiations into her own hands, which meant she had to halt her work on the album: "I had to be willing to throw the record away and not ever release it."
Despite the relatively low sales of Morissette's previous two albums, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie and MTV Unplugged (1999), compared to those of her international debut album, Jagged Little Pill
Jagged Little Pill
Jagged Little Pill is the third studio album by Canadian recording artist and songwriter Alanis Morissette. It was Morissette's first internationally released album, and her first studio album after the three year hiatus following her break with MCA Records. The album marked a shift from her style...
(1995), Maverick Records considered her a strong commercial asset and were concerned that she would leave because of the disputes and release the album on another label. For a time Morissette was threatening to leave Maverick (according to Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
), until label founder Madonna
Madonna (entertainer)
Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...
intervened and persuaded her to stay. During the delay, Morissette brought in musicians such as bassists Eric Avery
Eric Avery
Eric Adam Avery is an American musician and is the former bass player for the rock band Jane's Addiction. Avery played in Jane's Addiction initially from 1985 to 1991, and rejoined the band in 2008 before departing again in 2010....
(formerly of Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction is an American alternative rock band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1985. The band's original line-up featured Perry Farrell , Dave Navarro , Eric Avery and Stephen Perkins . After breaking up in 1991, Jane's Addiction briefly reunited in 1997 and again in 2001, both times...
) and Flea
Flea (musician)
Michael Peter Balzary , better known by his stage name Flea, is an Australian-American musician and occasional actor. He is best known as the bassist, co-founding member, and one of the composers of the rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers...
(of Red Hot Chili Peppers
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Red Hot Chili Peppers is an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles in 1983. The group's musical style primarily consists of rock with an emphasis on funk, as well as elements from other genres such as punk, hip hop and psychedelic rock...
), Dean DeLeo
Dean DeLeo
Dean DeLeo is an American guitarist for the rock band Stone Temple Pilots.He is also known for his role in the short-lived bands Talk Show and Army of Anyone, which featured his younger brother Robert DeLeo, Filter frontman Richard Patrick, and session drummer Ray Luzier...
(guitarist for Stone Temple Pilots
Stone Temple Pilots
Stone Temple Pilots is an American rock band from San Diego, California that consists of Scott Weiland , brothers Robert DeLeo and Dean DeLeo , and Eric Kretz ....
) and Me'shell Ndegeocello
Me'shell Ndegeocello
Meshell Ndegeocello is an American singer-songwriter, rapper, bassist, and vocalist. Her music incorporates a wide variety of influences, including funk, soul, hip hop, reggae, R&B, rock, and jazz. She has received significant critical acclaim throughout her career, and has had ten career Grammy...
to play on the album. After this period, in response to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, she previewed the track "Utopia" that she wrote in January 2001 on her website.
During the making of the album, Morissette wrote 27 songs, which she eventually narrowed down to 17. When she was mixing
Audio 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...
and producing the album, every time she reached the 11th track she, as she put it, "would shut down. My brain would shut off and I just felt like it was information overload ... I didn't want to overwhelm myself or anyone else in the process of trying to cram them all onto the double CD." She planned for several of the excluded songs to be released as single B-sides or on a separate EP
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
to be released after the album; eight of them were released on a CD/DVD package, Feast on Scraps
Feast on Scraps
Feast on Scraps is an Alanis Morissette CD/DVD package released on December 10, 2002 . The DVD was filmed during a concert in Rotterdam, Netherlands and the CD contains unreleased studio tracks left off Morissette's album Under Rug Swept, which was released earlier that year...
, released in late 2002. "I just could not face the idea of letting all of these songs go", she had said. "They're all precious to me. It's just a matter of finding the right framework in which to share them with the world."
Themes
Morissette has said that during the writing and recording of the album, she noticed a unifying theme emerging of "the desire to mend unions and bridge gaps. Whether it be between genders or between human beings, between spirits." She said that when she began working on the album, she was at "the middle of the beginning of the end of a relationship", and that entering the studio and writing new material "would propel me to face some of the truths that were scaring me. Inevitably, we ended up breaking up, so the record kind of followed the grieving of it, then the proverbial phoenix rising and continuing to grow." Under Rug Swept was also influenced by the extensive travelling Morissette did between recording sessions, particularly her stay at a NavajoNavajo Nation
The Navajo Nation is a semi-autonomous Native American-governed territory covering , occupying all of northeastern Arizona, the southeastern portion of Utah, and northwestern New Mexico...
reservation: "The sense of community the Navajo people
Navajo people
The Navajo of the Southwestern United States are the largest single federally recognized tribe of the United States of America. The Navajo Nation has 300,048 enrolled tribal members. The Navajo Nation constitutes an independent governmental body which manages the Navajo Indian reservation in the...
really focus on, there's a similar sense of community I felt when I traveled, when we toured through the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
", she explained. "It permeates what I yearn for and I try to create it as best as I can through the songs". She described the album as melodically and sonically "more structured" than her previous album, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie
Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie
Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie is the fourth album and second internationally released album by singer-songwriter Alanis Morissette, released by Maverick Records in the United States on November 3, 1998...
(1998).
The first track, "21 Things I Want in a Lover", features Morissette listing the qualities she looks for in a partner. "There's a part of this song where I'm joking, but there's a whole part of this song where I'm dead serious", she said. "Because the palm sweating, heart palpitating beginnings of a relationship often result in a huge amount of incompatibility, so the concept of compatibility is so much more important to me as I get older." "Narcissus" describes, as Morissette puts it, "that dichotomy of loving someone and really wanting it to work and wanting to bridge the gap and bridge the chasm and, yet at the same time, being totally repulsed by the qualities that are being presented and the pain that comes from it." She said the intention of writing "Hands Clean
Hands Clean
"Hands Clean" is a song by Canadian recording artist and songwriter Alanis Morissette for her fifth studio album Under Rug Swept . It was released as the lead single of the album. The song was written and produced by Morissette herself...
" was "to get to a place where I could be as truthful and as honest as I possibly could be about certain relationships in my past ... oftentimes I feel by not speaking the truth, by being silent, there's an element of an untruth in that ... [it] sometimes can feel just as horrible as a lie to me."
"Flinch
Flinch (song)
"Flinch" is a pop rock song written by Alanis Morissette, and produced by her for her sixth album, Under Rug Swept .-Background:Morissette said she wrote "Flinch" immediately after an experience she had in Canada during which she nearly ran into the subject of the song, only eluding them by driving...
", the fourth track, was written about an experience Morissette had during which she almost ran into a man who had a profound effect on her: "I was surprised at how many years had past but still I was responding to the situation as though I had been spending time with him two minutes earlier ... I do believe that I will be able to get to a point where hearing his name or even running into him or hearing from him won't trigger me as much as it did and still does." With "So Unsexy
So Unsexy
"So Unsexy" is a pop rock song written by Alanis Morissette, and produced by her for her sixth album, Under Rug Swept .-Background and theme:...
", Morissette said she was "really trying to get into the underbelly of some of my insecurities and why little tiny things that are innocuous and inconsequential are translated in my own mind as to be taken so personally ... as long as I have my own back, it's not as scary and it's not as horrifying." In "Precious Illusions
Precious Illusions
"Precious Illusions" is a song written and produced by Alanis Morissette, and recorded for her sixth album Under Rug Swept . It released as the album's second single in mid-2002 ; CD1 was released on August 5 and CD2 followed on October 29.Its lyrics describe a conflict between idealism and...
" she discusses "the difference between really being alive and really embracing the reason why I'm here on this earth versus my just being asleep and sleep walking and accepting the status quo and accepting somewhat of a suffering mentality to being here. It really is my responsibility to distinguish the difference between the two and choose which one I want."
Track seven on the album, "That Particular Time", documents a breakup and "the three distinct chapters in the relationship" Morissette was going through. "[Love] took many different forms, and I was beating myself up for a long time for being in a relationship that just didn't feel right", she said. "But then I realized that it was a very loving act for me to stick it out for a minute or two to really kind of see whether there was something worth continuing to explore in a romantic way." She said of "A Man", which is written from a male point-of-view as a response to "Narcissus", "For once I try to feel a bit of empathy and to imagine how it feels being a man in these confusing times ... I try to react as an honourable man to the vibes of erroneous machos who are damaging the image of my sex." "You Owe Me Nothing in Return" is, in Morissette's words, "about the real definition of what love is ... wanting for someone that you love what they want for themselves. And at the same time not sacrificing my own life and my thoughts and my own beliefs. Supporting someone in their choices and at the same time being able to express what mine are, even if they differ, is the ultimate healthy, loving interaction."
The tenth and penultimate track, "Surrendering
Surrendering (song)
"Surrendering" is a pop rock song written by Alanis Morissette, and produced by her for her sixth album, Under Rug Swept .The song was the last Morissette wrote for the album. According to her, it is "about the gratitude that I feel for someone tapping into the courage that it takes to allow...
", was the last song Morissette wrote for the album. According to her, it is "about the gratitude that I feel for someone tapping into the courage that it takes to allow themselves to be loved and to drop the defenses and fears ... And how thrilling it is for me to be able to be let in that kind of way ... It's a very peaceful, joyful song". Morissette considers "Utopia" a summary of the feminine and masculine elements in the relationship chronicled in the album: "For me, it's like they're sitting together in the same car and are finally driving down the same road in the same direction and there's a meeting of both worlds." She said that when she wrote it, she knew it would be the last track.
Morissette wrote several political songs such as "Awakening Americans" and "Symptoms" during the making of the album, but she decided not to include such material in spite of an online petition lobbying for their release. Morissette said she doesn't "resonate" with overtly political songs because they are "removed too much" from her personal experiences: "I love sitting up at two in the morning talking religion, but when it comes to my songs, it's just rambling, soapbox, obnoxious", she said. ("Awakening Americans" and "Symptoms" were released as B-side
A-side and B-side
A-side and B-side originally referred to the two sides of gramophone records on which singles were released beginning in the 1950s. The terms have come to refer to the types of song conventionally placed on each side of the record, with the A-side being the featured song , while the B-side, or...
s.)
Critical reception
Reviews of Under Rug Swept on its release were generally positive. BillboardBillboard (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...
described the album as "supreme" and "very human ... [it] satisfies with moments of darkness, enlightenment, anger, bittersweet tension, and happiness ... Although 2002 is still young, consider Under Rug Swept one of the year's best." Q
Q (magazine)
Q is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom.Founders Mark Ellen and David Hepworth were dismayed by the music press of the time, which they felt was ignoring a generation of older music buyers who were buying CDs — then still a new technology...
magazine said the album was "a smart shot across the bows ... some of the most inviting music of her career ... Morissette has fashioned a lyrical Trojan Horse
Trojan Horse
The Trojan Horse is a tale from the Trojan War about the stratagem that allowed the Greeks finally to enter the city of Troy and end the conflict. In the canonical version, after a fruitless 10-year siege, the Greeks constructed a huge wooden horse, and hid a select force of men inside...
to be wheeled into unsuspecting homes for months to come." Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau is an American essayist, music journalist, and self-proclaimed "Dean of American Rock Critics".One of the earliest professional rock critics, Christgau is known for his terse capsule reviews, published since 1969 in his Consumer Guide columns...
wrote, "The pop-rock here lacks the faux-punk edge [on Jagged Little Pill] ... But Morissette instantly demonstrates her gift for the catchy ... topping memorable verse with indelible chorus, she's a self-actualized nut who goes for what she wants, exactly as pretentious as the college girls she represents for." According to LA Weekly
LA Weekly
LA Weekly is a free weekly tabloid-sized "alternative weekly" in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1978 by Editor/Publisher Jay Levin and a board of directors that included actor-producer Michael Douglas...
, the album "is Alanis Morissette in top form, exercising her God-given right to vent and sound beautiful doing so."
Other critical appraisals were less favorable. Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
, in a three-star review, wrote "The music is brawny and meticulous ... [but] Under Rug Swept just about drowns in psychobabble. While the tone of the songs, and the grain of Morissette's voice, promise intimacy, there's hardly a private detail anywhere." Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
said "the album's garbled title is also preparation for some of the clumsiest lyrics to be heard on a pop record in years ... The songs are riddled with such overwritten Psych 101 ruminations." The Village Voice
The Village Voice
The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...
criticised the lyrics, saying "Much like even non-football fans used to be mesmerized by [Howard] Cosell
Howard Cosell
Howard William Cosell was an American sports journalist who was widely known for his blustery, cocksure personality. Cosell said of himself, "Arrogant, pompous, obnoxious, vain, cruel, verbose, a showoff. I have been called all of these...
's genius for never using two words when 23 would do, you don't have to be a love-damaged 17-year-old girl to find Under Rug Swepts dense verbiage a trip. Words tumble forth and arrange themselves kaleidoscopically into all sorts of unusual categories ... I'm just not sure that pop music should come out of a thesaurus." NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
called it "a tedious album" with "overwrought folk-rock like 'Surrendering' and 'Hands Clean' destined for a thousand organic juice bars. Lyrically, it's often hilarious ... This record moves way beyond armchair psychology — in fact, there are armchairs that have a cannier grasp of the mind."
Under Rug Swept received a Juno Award
Juno Award
The Juno Awards are presented annually to Canadian musical artists and bands to acknowledge their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music...
nomination in the category of "Pop Album of the Year
Juno Award for Pop Album of the Year
The Juno Award for "Pop Album of the Year" has been awarded since 1999, as recognition each year for the best pop album in Canada.-Best Pop Album :*1999 - Barenaked Ladies, Stunt-Best Pop/Adult Album :...
". Morissette herself won the "Jack Richardson Producer of the Year" award for the songs "Hands Clean" and "So Unsexy", and she was nominated in the "Artist of the Year
Juno Award for Artist of the Year
The Juno Award for Artist of the Year has been awarded since 2002 as recognition each year for the best artist/musician in Canada. The category was originally divided by sex...
" category. (For more information, see Juno Awards of 2003
Juno Awards of 2003
The Juno Awards of 2003 were presented in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada on 6 April 2003. The primary awards ceremony was hosted that evening by Shania Twain at the Corel Centre and televised on CTV.- Ceremony highlights :...
.)
Chart performance and promotion
Under Rug Swept was closely guarded before its release: for journalists to listen to it, they had to be invited to Maverick Records headquarters and listen to a single play copy in a special listening room. In July 2001 Geoff Mayfield of BillboardBillboard (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...
was quoted as saying that because of the popularity of artists such as Radiohead
Radiohead
Radiohead are an English rock band from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, formed in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke , Jonny Greenwood , Ed O'Brien , Colin Greenwood and Phil Selway .Radiohead released their debut single "Creep" in 1992...
and Staind
Staind
Staind is an American rock band that was formed in 1995 in Springfield, Massachusetts. For 16 years, the band consisted of lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Aaron Lewis, lead guitarist Mike Mushok, bassist Johnny April, and drummer Jon Wysocki...
, it was a "good year for rock ... It's not just one kind of rock that's connecting right now — the palette is varied. For an artist [such as Morissette] who comes from rock, this could be a fertile time." Other industry insiders said it may become a commercial return to form for Morissette; The Record
The Record (Waterloo Region)
The Waterloo Region Record is the daily newspaper covering Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada, including the cities of Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge, as well as the surrounding area...
noted Morissette's age- and gender-transcendent appeal, the "smart" lyrics on the album and the appropriateness of its "soulful introspection and spiritual awareness" in a post-9/11 society, and how Morissette "stands out from everyone else on radio ... there are few artists addressing relationships in a serious way, especially from a female point of view."
"Hands Clean
Hands Clean
"Hands Clean" is a song by Canadian recording artist and songwriter Alanis Morissette for her fifth studio album Under Rug Swept . It was released as the lead single of the album. The song was written and produced by Morissette herself...
", the album's first single
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...
, began receiving radio airplay in North America in January 2002, and it debuted at number one in Canada. It also reached number 1 in New Zealand. It peaked inside the top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
in the U.S., where it was most successful at Adult Top 40 and Hot AC radio; in one week more Hot AC stations added the single to their playlists than any other song in history. It was considered a comeback single for Morissette, and it was her most successful single since 1998 in most countries, reaching the top ten in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and the top 20 in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. For February, the album's month of release, Morissette was "Artist of the Month" on AOL Music.
Under Rug Swept entered the Canadian albums chart at number one with first week sales of 35,000 copies, and the CRIA
Canadian Recording Industry Association
Music Canada is a Toronto-based, non-profit trade organization that was founded 9 April 1963 to represent the interests of companies that record, artists, manufacture, production, promotion and distribution of music in Canada...
certified it platinum the following month for shipments of 100,000. In the U.S. the album sold 215,000 copies in its first week, debuting at number one on the Billboard 200
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
chart during a busy sales week following the 2002 Grammy Awards ceremony; it stayed in the top spot for a week. Within a month of release it had sold 500,000 copies, and the RIAA
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States...
certified it platinum for shipments of over one million. Under Rug Swept debuted at number one in 12 countries, including Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
and Australia. It debuted at number two in France and the United Kingdom, where the BPI
British Phonographic Industry
The British Phonographic Industry is the British record industry's trade association.-Structure:Its membership comprises hundreds of music companies including all four "major" record companies , associate members such as manufacturers and distributors, and hundreds of independent music companies...
certified it gold for shipping 100,000 copies.
The album stayed in the top 20 on the Billboard 200 for five weeks and on the chart for 24. A second single, "Precious Illusions
Precious Illusions
"Precious Illusions" is a song written and produced by Alanis Morissette, and recorded for her sixth album Under Rug Swept . It released as the album's second single in mid-2002 ; CD1 was released on August 5 and CD2 followed on October 29.Its lyrics describe a conflict between idealism and...
", was released to radio in May 2002 and reached number four in Canada, but it failed to chart on the U.S. Hot 100 or inside the top 40 in Australia or the UK. Later in 2002 Morissette embarked on a world tour, which did not pick up album sales. In August she performed at the V2002
V Festival
The V Festival is an annual music festival held in England during the penultimate weekend in August. The event is held at two parks simultaneously which share the same bill; artists perform at one location on Saturday and then swap on Sunday. The sites are located at Hylands Park in Chelmsford and...
festival in England. After the failure of "Precious Illusions", Maverick did not commercially release any more singles from the album, although "So Unsexy
So Unsexy
"So Unsexy" is a pop rock song written by Alanis Morissette, and produced by her for her sixth album, Under Rug Swept .-Background and theme:...
" was tentatively slated as the third single at one point. Promotional singles were issued internationally: "Flinch
Flinch (song)
"Flinch" is a pop rock song written by Alanis Morissette, and produced by her for her sixth album, Under Rug Swept .-Background:Morissette said she wrote "Flinch" immediately after an experience she had in Canada during which she nearly ran into the subject of the song, only eluding them by driving...
" and "So Unsexy" in Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, "21 Things I Want in a Lover
21 Things I Want in a Lover
"21 Things I Want in a Lover", sometimes just called "21 Things" for short, is a alternative rock song written by Alanis Morissette, and produced by her for her sixth album, Under Rug Swept . The song features guitarist Dean DeLeo of Stone Temple Pilots.-Theme:Morissette said that she is joking in...
" in Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
, "Surrendering
Surrendering (song)
"Surrendering" is a pop rock song written by Alanis Morissette, and produced by her for her sixth album, Under Rug Swept .The song was the last Morissette wrote for the album. According to her, it is "about the gratitude that I feel for someone tapping into the courage that it takes to allow...
" in Canada, and "Utopia
Utopia (Alanis Morissette song)
"Utopia" is a Pop Rock song written by Alanis Morissette, and produced by her for her sixth album, Under Rug Swept .-Background and theme:...
" in the U.S.
As of September 2008 the album had sold 1,017,000 copies in the U.S., half the amount sold by Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie by the same date. According to a Maverick Records press release, Under Rug Swept had sold 3.8 million copies worldwide by February 2004.
Track listing
Credits and personnel
- ProducerRecord 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 - Recording: Rob Jacobs and Brad Nelson
- 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 Fogel (tracks 1—6, 8—11), Rob Jacobs (track 7) - 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...
s: Alanis Morissette, Nick Lashley, Joel Shearer, 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...
, Dean DeLeoDean DeLeoDean DeLeo is an American guitarist for the rock band Stone Temple Pilots.He is also known for his role in the short-lived bands Talk Show and Army of Anyone, which featured his younger brother Robert DeLeo, Filter frontman Richard Patrick, and session drummer Ray Luzier...
(tracks 1 and 6) - KeyboardsElectronic keyboardAn electronic keyboard is an electronic or digital keyboard instrument.The major components of a typical modern electronic keyboard are:...
: Alanis Morissette, Jamie MuhoberacJamie MuhoberacJamie Muhoberac is a session keyboardist with numerous credits, including The All-American Rejects, Fleetwood Mac, The Rolling Stones , Backstreet Boys, Aly & AJ, Bob Dylan, Goo Goo Dolls, Chris Cornell , My Chemical Romance, Paradise Lost, Girlfriend, Carmen Rizzo and Pet Shop Boys...
, Mark Stephens, Richard Davis, Carmen Rizzo - Vocals: Alanis Morissette
- BassBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
: Chris Chaney, Tim Thorney, FleaFlea (musician)Michael Peter Balzary , better known by his stage name Flea, is an Australian-American musician and occasional actor. He is best known as the bassist, co-founding member, and one of the composers of the rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers...
(track 2), Meshell Ndegeocello (tracks 5 and 9), Eric AveryEric AveryEric Adam Avery is an American musician and is the former bass player for the rock band Jane's Addiction. Avery played in Jane's Addiction initially from 1985 to 1991, and rejoined the band in 2008 before departing again in 2010....
(track 6), Chris Bruce (track 3) - Drums and percussionPercussion instrumentA percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
: Gary Novak - Piano: Mark Stephens, Richard Causon (track 7)
- Recorded at Great Big Music, Dog House Studios, Westlake, Battery, Royaltone Studios, Larrabee North
- Mixed at Front Page Studios, Battery, Henson Recording Studios
- Protocols: Richard Davis
- Programming: Carmen Rizzo
- Additional Pro ToolsPro ToolsPro Tools is a digital audio workstation platform for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems, developed and manufactured by Avid Technology. It is widely used by professionals throughout the audio industries for recording and editing in music production, film scoring, film, and television...
editing: Andrew Scheps - Additional engineering: Carmen Rizzo, Richard Davis and Michael Harlow
- Assistant engineers: Brian Walters, Jeremy Janeczko, Lior Goldenberg, Alex Uychocde, Kevin Guarnieri, Aaron Fessel, Pete Novak, Chris Wonzer and Jeff Rothchild
- Additional mix engineering: Jason Brennan and Bryan Carrigan
- Assistant mix engineers: Jason Brennan, Rick Tapper and Carlos Cano
- Technicians: Vince Giannini (guitar), Bruce Nelson (guitar), Jeremy Janeczko (drums), John Talbot (keyboards), Rich Mazzetta (Dean's guitars), Dave Lee (Flea's bass)
- Coordinator: Shari Sutcliffe
- Manager: Scott Welch for Mosaic Media Group
- Photos: RankinRankin (photographer)John Rankin Waddell, working name Rankin, born 1966, is a British portrait and fashion photographer.-Life and career:Waddell was brought up in St Albans, Hertfordshire. At the age of 21, whilst studying accounting at Brighton Polytechnic, he realized that his interests lay elsewhere and dropped...
- Creative direction: Alanis Morissette and Frank Maddocks
- Art direction and design: Frank Maddocks
Album
| Chart (2002) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Canada Albums Chart | 1 |
| Australia Albums Chart | 1 |
| Austria Albums Chart | 1 |
| Germany Albums Chart | 1 |
| Hungary Albums Chart | 13 |
| Ireland Albums Chart | 1 |
| Italy Albums Chart | 1 |
| Japan Oricon Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan. It started as , which was founded by Sōkō Koike in November 1967 and became known for its music charts. Oricon Inc... Albums Chart |
11 |
| Norway Albums Chart | 1 |
| Spain Albums Chart | 1 |
| Switzerland Albums Chart | 1 |
| Chart (2002) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| U.S. Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
1 |
| France Albums Chart | 2 |
| Israel Albums Chart | 2 |
| Netherlands Albums Chart | 2 |
| UK Albums Chart UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart... |
2 |
| Belgium Albums Chart | 3 |
| Poland Albums Chart | 3 |
| Sweden Albums Chart | 3 |
| New Zealand Albums Chart | 11 |
Singles
| Year | Title | Chart positions | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CAN Canada Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean... |
U.S. Hot 100 Billboard Hot 100 The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday... |
U.S. Hot 100 Airplay | U.S. Modern Rock | U.S. Adult Top 40 | U.S. Top 40 Mainstream Top 40 (Pop Songs) The Mainstream Top 40 is an airplay chart from Billboard magazine, and is also known as Pop Songs on billboard.com. It was often mistaken for and confused with the now discontinued Pop 100 Airplay chart... /Pop Pop 100 The Pop 100 was a songs chart that debuted in February 2005 and was released weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States until its discontinuation in 2009... |
UK UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ... |
AUS ARIA Charts The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June... |
||
| 2002 | "Hands Clean Hands Clean "Hands Clean" is a song by Canadian recording artist and songwriter Alanis Morissette for her fifth studio album Under Rug Swept . It was released as the lead single of the album. The song was written and produced by Morissette herself... " |
1 | 23 | 24 | 3 | 19 | 12 | 9 | |
| "Precious Illusions Precious Illusions "Precious Illusions" is a song written and produced by Alanis Morissette, and recorded for her sixth album Under Rug Swept . It released as the album's second single in mid-2002 ; CD1 was released on August 5 and CD2 followed on October 29.Its lyrics describe a conflict between idealism and... " |
4 | 16 | 53 | 41 | |||||
Other charts
| Single | Chart (2002) | Peak position |
|---|---|---|
| "Hands Clean Hands Clean "Hands Clean" is a song by Canadian recording artist and songwriter Alanis Morissette for her fifth studio album Under Rug Swept . It was released as the lead single of the album. The song was written and produced by Morissette herself... " |
New Zealand Top 50 Singles | 1 |
| Italy Top 50 Singles | 3 | |
| Switzerland Top 100 Singles | 5 | |
| Netherland Mega Top 100 Singles | 15 | |
| Germany Top 100 Singles | 18 | |
| Sweden Top 60 Singles | 32 | |
| Belgium Top 50 Singles | 40 | |
| France Top 100 Singles | 66 |
| Single | Chart (2002) | Peak position |
|---|---|---|
| "Precious Illusions Precious Illusions "Precious Illusions" is a song written and produced by Alanis Morissette, and recorded for her sixth album Under Rug Swept . It released as the album's second single in mid-2002 ; CD1 was released on August 5 and CD2 followed on October 29.Its lyrics describe a conflict between idealism and... " |
Canada Top 50 Singles | 4 |
| Italy Top 50 Singles | 21 | |
| Australia Top 100 Singles | 41 | |
| UK Top 75 Singles | 53 | |
| Germany Top 100 Singles | 77 | |
| Netherland Mega Top 100 Singles | 79 | |
| Switzerland Top 100 Singles | 95 | |
| U.S. Billboard Adult Top 40 | 16 | |
Promotional singles
- "SurrenderingSurrendering (song)"Surrendering" is a pop rock song written by Alanis Morissette, and produced by her for her sixth album, Under Rug Swept .The song was the last Morissette wrote for the album. According to her, it is "about the gratitude that I feel for someone tapping into the courage that it takes to allow...
" (only released in CanadaCanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
) - "UtopiaUtopia (Alanis Morissette song)"Utopia" is a Pop Rock song written by Alanis Morissette, and produced by her for her sixth album, Under Rug Swept .-Background and theme:...
" (only released in the United States) - "So UnsexySo Unsexy"So Unsexy" is a pop rock song written by Alanis Morissette, and produced by her for her sixth album, Under Rug Swept .-Background and theme:...
" (only released in BrazilBrazilBrazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
)