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 (see 1998 in music).

Contents

History

Track listing

Personnel

Charts and certifications

Notes

History

After the massive success of ''Jagged Little Pill'' (1995), Morissette was considered one of the biggest music stars in the world, and many fans anxiously awaited a follow-up album. Morissette knew that if she composed an album along the same lines of ''Jagged Little Pill'', she would be accused of "playing it safe" and pandering to mainstream tastes. She decided to go in the entirely opposite direction , creating an album that was almost designed to shock and alienate her fans . A dark and wandering album, ''Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie'' featured many songs with no hooks or choruses, confounding people who heard it. Songs such as "Front Row", "The Couch", and "I Was Hoping" challenged the traditional song formula.
Morissette wrote "Thank U" and "Baba" after her trip to India. 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 seldomly 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. Additionally, the text on the album's cover refers to the The Eight Precepts of Buddhism.
The first single from ''Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie'', "Thank U", was released to U.S. 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 U.S. 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''. 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 twenty-eight weeks, the album had fallen off the Billboard 200, and as of 2006 it had sold 2.6 million copies according to Nielsen SoundScan.^[1] As ''Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie'' went triple platinum, it was by no means a failure, but it was a huge drop off from ''Jagged Little Pill'', which went platinum sixteen times.
The label tried boosting sales with a second single, "Joining You", which became a modest hit on the Modern Rock Tracks chart. "Unsent", the third single, peaked outside the top forty on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. The fourth single "So Pure" failed to chart. None of the singles revived significant interest in the album. At the time of its release, Morissette fans were very discontented with ''Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie'', feeling almost betrayed by its huge departure from ''Jagged Little Pill''. Critics were disparaging in their reviews, but the passing of time brought larger appreciation for the record. Many fans consider it her greatest and most personal record. In fact, some of the album's more lyrically complex and eclectic songs — "Joining You", "So Pure", "Baba" and "I Was Hoping" in particular — are often passionately acknowledged and praised in fan reviews of the record and in fan reviews of her 2005 compilation album ''; some reviewers expressed disappointement that these songs were not included.
"Thank U" received a Grammy Award nomination for "Best Female Pop Vocal Performance", and "So Pure" was nominated in the category of "Best Female Rock Vocal Performance". The album itself won a Juno Award for "Album of the Year".
In addition, Alanis decided to add Can't Not to the album. "Can't Not" was a previously written song back in her Canada days. The lyrics had been re-written and re-produced and added to "Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie".

Track listing

Although the vast majority of the songs on the album had music composed as a joint effort by Morissette and Ballard, the lyrics on all of them were written exclusively by Morissette.
#"Front Row" (Morissette, Glen Ballard) – 4:13
#"Baba" (Morissette, Ballard) – 4:29
#"Thank U" (Morissette, Ballard) – 4:18
#"Are You Still Mad" (Morissette) – 4:04
#"Sympathetic Character" (Morissette) – 5:13
#"That I Would Be Good" (Morissette, Ballard) – 4:16
#"The Couch" (Morissette, Ballard) – 5:24
#"Can't Not" (Morissette, Ballard) – 4:35
#"UR" (Morissette, Ballard) – 3:31
#"I Was Hoping" (Morissette, Ballard) – 3:51
#"One" (Morissette, Ballard) – 4:40
#"Would Not Come" (Morissette, Ballard) – 4:05
#"Unsent" (Morissette, Ballard) – 4:10
#"So Pure" (Morissette, Ballard) – 2:50
#"Joining You" (Morissette, Ballard) – 4:24
#"Heart of the House" (Morissette) – 3:46
#"Your Congratulations" (Morissette) – 3:54
The Australian version of the album contains a demo (piano and vocals only) of "Uninvited" (from the ''City of Angels'' soundtrack) as a bonus track.

Personnel

★ Glen Ballard - Synthesizer, Guitar, Piano, Programming, Producer, Engineer, String Arrangements

★ Benmont Tench - Organ, Chamberlin

★ David Campbell - String Arrangements, String Arrangements

★ Scott Campbell - Engineer

★ Gary Novak - Percussion, Drums

★ Alanis Morissette - Flute, Harmonica, Piano, Vocals, Producer, Photography

★ Joel Shearer - Guitar

★ Jolie Jones Levine - Production Coordination

★ Nick Lashley - Guitar

★ Chris Bellman - Mastering

★ Chris Fogel - Programming, Engineer, Mixing

★ Kevin Reagan - Art Direction, Design

★ Roger Sommers - Engineer, Second Engineer

★ Dash Mihok - Photography, Loop

★ Regina Thomas - Photography

★ Chris Chaney - Bass

★ Stefan G. Bucher - Design

★ Shad T. Scott - Programming

★ Heather Stanley - Photography

Charts and certifications

Australia	2x platinum
Austria	Platinum
Belgium	Gold
Brazil	Gold
Canada	4x platinum
Europe	2x platinum
Finland	Gold
France	2x gold
Germany	Platinum
Netherlands	Platinum
New Zealand	2x platinum
Norway	Platinum
Switzerland	Platinum
UK	Platinum
U.S.	3x platinum

Notes

1. Caulfield, Keith. "Ask Billboard". ''Billboard''. January 3 2006. Retrieved August 23 2006.