Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie is the fourth studio album and second internationally released album by singer-songwriter Alanis Morissette, released by Maverick Records in the United States on November 3, 1998. The album was positively received by critics and performed well commercially, breaking the record for album sales in its first week by a female artist. The first single from the album, "Thank U", reached the top 20 of the US Billboard Hot 100. Morissette promoted the album with worldwide touring.
Inspired from her trip to India over late 1996 and early 1997, the album cover contains phrases from five precepts, a basic code of ethics of the followers of Buddhism.[5]
Background
Morissette wrote "Thank U" and "Baba" after her trip to India in 1997. The protagonist of "Baba" goes on a spiritual pilgrimage to India where she encounters a guru who, like many spiritual teachers in India, is referred to as "Baba". The word "Baba" means "father" in the Hindi language. Morissette opened most of shows during the Junkie era with the song, and it was featured as an opener during her 2002 tours. It has been seldom played since then. "Baba" opened Morissette's performance on the television show MTV Unplugged in 1999, but it was excluded from the CD release Alanis Unplugged. Another live version of "Baba" was released on the No Boundaries: A Benefit for the Kosovar Refugees CD. In a 2012 interview with fans, director Kevin Smith confirmed that "Front Row" was partially inspired by a phone conversation he and Morissette once had. They were mutually attracted to each other but never actually dated. His suggestion of naming the reasons they were not a couple became part of the lyrics.
Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie was acclaimed by music critics. Stephen Thomas Erlewine from AllMusic called it a "clear step forward" and concluded that "Morissette is a weird acquired taste, due to her idiosyncratic vocals and doggedly convoluted confessionals – but [the album] certainly confirms that she doesn't quite sound like anyone else, either."[6]The Village Voice's Robert Christgau commented that he felt "privileged to listen along with all the young women whose struggles Morissette blows up to such a scale."[17]Ken Tucker from Entertainment Weekly complimented Morissette's new style and wrote that "Morissette has used her year-plus recording hiatus and newfound star status wisely, in pursuit of a way to make a vulnerable, openhearted album in the face of intense commercial expectations."[7]Slant Magazine critic Sal Cinquemani complimented Morissette's songwriting and concluded that while the album "is nearly 15 minutes too long (did an ode to her mother, the sweet 'Heart of the House,' really need to be made public?)... not one moment of Junkie's 70-plus minutes is less than captivating."[13]
Despite the B+ grade from Ken Tucker in 1998, fellow Entertainment Weekly music critic David Browne was much harsher. In the Spring 2000 Tenth Anniversary issue of Entertainment Weekly, in a retrospective article discussing popular music in the 1990s, Browne wrote "Musically speaking, easy targets abounded--does anyone beyond family remember Hammer's gangsta makeover or Vanilla Ice's live album? At least we could laugh at those, whereas the decade's foremost clunker--Alanis Morisette's Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie--was corporate grunge and victim-culture whining incarnate."[18] It was also listed amongst "the worst albums ever" by Q magazine.[19]
Commercial performance
In the United States, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with 469,000 copies sold in its first week. The album broke the record for sales in its first week by a female act, surpassing Lauryn Hill's The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill which opened with 423,000 copies. This would be later surpassed once again in 2000 by Britney Spears with the release of her second album Oops!...I Did It Again selling 1.3 million copies in its first week. In the New Zealand Albums Chart, it was Morissette's second consecutive number one album, and was certificated 2× Platinum by RIANZ, selling over 30,000 copies. The album also debuted at number one in Switzerland, and stayed in the charts for thirty-one weeks. It was certified Platinum in that country. The album entered at number one in Norway, staying there for three weeks. It was certificated platinum there as well. It also peaked in the top ten in many countries, including the United Kingdom, Australia, France, Sweden, and other European countries. The album has sold 2,604,000 copies in the United States as of March 2012.[20]
The album sold 2.2 million copies worldwide on its first week of release and over 5.2 million copies worldwide within a month.[21]
As with her previous album, Morissette did an extensive amount of touring in-support of this one. In the fall of 1998, she embarked on a club tour across North America, with select appearances in Europe, Asia and Australia. The North American leg of the tour included opening act Chris Whitley.
Guitarist Nick Lashley and bassist Chris Chaney remained for this album's touring from the previous years, although there were several new band members. The band now incorporated a keyboardist, Deron Johnson, and welcomed guitarist Joel Shearer (from the Jagged Little Pill recording sessions) and drummer Gary Novak. Morissette herself continued playing guitar (more than on previous tours), as well as her signature harmonica. She also started playing the flute live, during the song "That I Would Be Good".
In January 1999, the Junkie Tour kicked-off, lasting through July, then returned from October through December. Opening acts included Garbage and Liz Phair, among others. The worldwide tour had alternating setlists for every leg, but included the usual set openers and closers. The concert introduction music was a track from DJ Shadow, entitled "Building Steam with a Grain of Salt".
During the tour, Morissette wrote the song "Still" for the Kevin Smith film, Dogma. This song was performed live for the first time in July at Morissette's VH1 Storytellers special. After that special, she performed in front of thousands during the Woodstock '99 concert festival in New York. Unlike the previous tours, Morissette focused mainly on performing songs that had been released and didn't perform any new songs, aside from a couple of B-sides during the second half of the year.
In May, Morissette and Tori Amos announced the "51⁄2 Week Tour" which filled the touring void in August and September before "The Junkie Tour" re-commenced. The tour would be a joint venture, as they both co-headlined the bills. Toward the end of the tour, Morissette recorded her MTV Unplugged concert special. During the final weeks of "The Junkie Tour", keyboardist Deron Johnson left the band and was replaced, and Gary Novak took a temporary leave and was replaced as well.
Morissette announced a summer 2000 mini-tour, called The One Tour, which saw her enlisting a different fan in each city as her own ‘local ambassador’, to guide her during the daytime and show her the best that the region has to offer (food, history, culture, music, language, and more). These local guides were selected after having won Z.com’s online contest. The One Tour kicked-off on July 7, 2000 with a rare performance in Beirut, Lebanon, before continuing on to Europe, stopping in countries and cities she had never (or rarely) performed in, namely Belgium, Croatia, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Switzerland. This was followed by shows in Tel Aviv and Caesarea, Israel, and a final stop on July 22nd in Istanbul.
On August 17, 2000, Morissette gave a special performance in Los Angeles at the Museum of Tolerance. Two months later, in October, she participated in a televised special from the Navajo Nation in Arizona. This was filmed as the premiere episode of a series on MSN and DirecTV, called Music in High Places; in addition to acoustic performances, Morissette learned about key moments in Navajo history, as well as Navajo cultural practices, traditions and music. She also explored the local wilderness and went into nature, studying, meditating and reflecting with elders and spiritual leaders.
The Navajo Nation special was Morissette's final date of the year, and her final promotion connected to Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, before she started work on her follow-up record, Under Rug Swept.
In November 2023, Morissette also announced The Triple Moon Tour with 33 live dates in the United States for the summer 2024 with the Joan Jett and the Blackhearts as support act, commemorating 25th anniversary of the album.[22]
Singles
The first single from Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, "Thank U", was released to US radio in October 1998. It charted considerably high in initial airplay because of the anticipation for the album, but many critics and listeners who had pigeonholed Morissette as an angry woman were surprised by the song's calm and serene feel. Released in November, the album debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 with the highest first-week sales for a female artist at the time, selling 469,054 copies in its first seven days. She held this record for two years, until being outsold in first week sales by Britney Spears' Oops!...I Did It Again which sold 1.3 million copies in 2000. It held the number-one spot for an additional week, before falling to eighth place in what is generally a busy shopping period because of the holiday season. Over the next few weeks sales for the album slowly declined, and then faltered drastically. After 28 weeks, the album had fallen off the Billboard 200, and as of September 2008 it had sold 2.6 million copies in the US,[23] less than a fifth in sales of that of Jagged Little Pill.
Though not an official single release in the US, "Joining You" became a modest hit on the Modern Rock Tracks chart; it was released as the album's second single in the UK and Europe. "Unsent", the second US single, peaked outside the top 40 on the US Billboard Hot 100. The third single "So Pure" made the top 40 in the UK as well as certain airplay charts in the US, though not the Billboard Hot 100. None of the singles revived significant interest in the album.
Unreleased songs
B-sides and unreleases
There had been many songs performed live during the tour in support of Jagged Little Pill, and during festivals in between albums that did not appear on the album. It was never specified if those songs were supposed to be included or not, but one of the songs did make its way through, "Can't Not" which was first performed live on January 12, 1996, along with "King of Intimidation" & "No Pressure Over Cappuccino". This version of "Can't Not", however, was slightly more mellow—and differed from the demo version previewed on the home video, Jagged Little Pill, Live. The song "King of Intimidation" (also previewed on the video) was never released on any album until the Jagged Little Pill 2015 deluxe edition, but appeared in a live clip along with the original "Can't Not" live clip on 2005's The Collection DVD.[24]
"No Pressure Over Cappuccino" was another song that popped up from the previous tours, but not until 1999's live album, Alanis Unplugged. This song was previewed on the above-mentioned video, but only in acoustic form. That version is mistakenly believed to be a studio demo, but it is merely an acoustic version performed with the band. The final song previewed on Jagged Little Pill, Live is "Death of Cinderella"; Alanis debuted the song live on December 6, 1995. It had never been released until the Jagged Little Pill 2015 deluxe edition. Other songs include "Gorgeous", "London", "Pray for Peace" (a.k.a. "She Gave Me a Wink") which has never been released but she played it for the first time in concert on October 18, 1997, and two untitled songs that fans refer to as "The Weekend Song" (or "I Don't Know") which debuted in concert on February 4, 1996, and "After A Year Like This One" on July 12, 1996. A live version of "London" appeared as a B-side to the "Joining You" and "Unsent" singles. The studio version was later released on the Jagged Little Pill 2015 deluxe edition with "Gorgeous" as well. Both songs debuted in concert on June 8, 1997.[25][26]
Aside from the songs written and performed during concerts 1995–1997, there were songs specifically written for Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie. "Pollyanna Flower" was released as a B-side to "Thank U", while "These Are The Thoughts" appeared on the single to "Joining You" (and later on Alanis Unplugged). "Can't Not" was originally intended to be a B-side, but Morissette and Ballard decided to put it on the record. Another song left off the album was "Princes Familiar", whose studio version has yet to surface. It has only been released in live, acoustic form on both Alanis Unplugged and The Collection.[27]
Demo versions
Over the past several years, demos of songs have leaked online. These demos include:
"Thank U" (with additional verses and lyrics, as well as a more upbeat drum track).
"Unsent" (not available in high quality, but features two extra verses, and different names).
"That I Would Be Good" (including Morissette clearing her throat in the beginning, a slight lyric change in one of the verses and a slightly longer flute solo).
"Can't Not" (30 second clip)
"Uninvited" (just vocals and piano, officially released on the "Thank U" single and the Japanese and Australian releases).[28]
"These Are the Thoughts" (features backing vocals and lyric changes, officially released on the Jagged Little Pill Deluxe edition release).
Track listing
All lyrics are written by Alanis Morissette; all music is composed by Morissette and Glen Ballard, except where noted
