



** Alanis Morissette, Under Rug Swept (Maverick): A strange album title for the woman least likely to sweep any detail under a rug, no matter how self-absorbed or trivial.

In the Alanis Universe, it's all fodder for rambling, melodramatic musings that sound as if they were doodled on the outside of a middle-school geometry notebook with pastel-colored Flair pens. That's normal when you're 13, but not after you're old enough to drive.

Musically, though, Morissette at least has sharpened her approach since 1998's loopy Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, with its laborious excursions into Indian textures and moody interludes. Also gone is the strident yelping of "You Oughta Know," one of the big hits from 1995's Jagged Little Pill. Alas, its absence only exposes Morissette's brassy alto as one-dimensional.

Still, the opening "21 Things I Want in a Lover" worms its way into your mind with distorted guitars and churning percussion. A poppy chord progression is a catchy foundation for "Hands Clean," the confessional tale of an indiscretion with an older man:

"If it weren't for your maturity, none of this would have happened," she sings. "If you weren't so wise beyond your years, I would've been able to control myself. If it weren't for my attention, you wouldn't have been successful, and if it weren't for me, you never would have amounted to very much."

By the final verse, she confesses that "I might want to marry you one day, if you'd watch that weight and keep your firm body." Oh, good.

In dating parlance, this is what you call a high-maintenance woman. Never is that more apparent than in the aforementioned "21 Things," which sounds like the ultimate personal ad from hell:

"Do you see everything as an illusion but enjoy it even though you are not of it? . . . Are you thriving in a job that helps your brother? . . . Are you athletic?"

A reasonable woman, Morissette explains that she "could wait forever" to find Mr. Right. Good thing, because even with a list, she seems to specialize in bitter, dysfunctional relationships.

In "Narcissus," she derisively vents her wrath at a "momma's boy," "egotist boy" and other broadly drawn evil caricatures. Didn't these flawed guys see the list?

Unfortunately, there's little on Under Rug Swept to make anyone care -- unless they are Alanis, that is.

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