Cogs can think.

Why would you look at that, Alanis Morisette’s new song and accompanying music video, off her new album, “Flavors Of Entanglement“.

And now I’m all confused. What am I supposed to do with this? Seriously, I really don’t know what to think of this. Is this good? Is this bad? Can someone help me? I’m a long-time Alanis fan, one who was disappointed by So-Called Chaos because it was too slick, too poppy, too simple - still much better than most other musicians’ material, but just not the best Alanis can do. And this song kind of feels the same. It has some nice tricks (the beats outside of the chorus are brilliant in their simplicity), but I just don’t feel this is the best she can do. It’s catchy, it’s easy to listen to, but I just don’t feel like it’s going to stick.

Lyrically, it’s brilliant, as usual - typical Alanis. There are few who can write like she can. “Look at us form our cliques in our sandbox/look at us being cruel kids with both our hearts blocked”. Not bad, not bad at all.

This might be one those songs that grows on you - she has a few of those. In addition, it’s never wise to discredit an entire Alanis album merely by looking at the singles. Alanis usually shines on the non-single tracks, where she dares to be more experimental, more adventurous.

It’s not a coincidence that her best material after Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie comes from Feast On Scraps, a collection of previously unreleased tracks.