祝! FUJI ROCK FESTIVAL '23出演!
その表現力豊かな音楽性とパフォーマンスで全世界のファンを虜にするアーティスト、アラニス・モリセット。FUJI ROCK FESTIVAL '23への出演も決定した彼女が2005年に発表したグレイテスト・ヒッツ・コンピレーション・アルバム『THE COLLECTION』が、約20年弱の時を越え初めてアナログ盤となって登場する!

1991年に母国カナダでリリースしたデビュー・アルバムでジュノー賞最優秀新人賞を受賞、その後マドンナが主宰するMaverick Recordsと契約を交わし、1995年にアルバム『JAGGED LITTLE PILL』でワールドワイド・デビュー、グラミー賞最多4部門を受賞し、一躍世界を魅了するシンガー・ソングライターとして大きな衝撃を与えたアーティストが、このアラニス・モリセットだ。以降も大ヒット・アルバムを輩出し、7度のグラミー賞受賞、14度のジュノー賞受賞をはじめ数々の音楽賞を受賞、全世界のアルバム総売上枚数は実に7,500万枚を超える、まさに時代を代表する女性アーティストだと言えるだろう。

今までに7度の来日公演を行っており、ここ日本でも彼女のその表現力豊かなパフォーマンスを多くのオーディエンスに見せつけてくれている。前回の来日は2005年に開催された愛知万博でのイベント出演、という形で行われたのだが、そのイベント出演のための来日から数えること約18年振りとなる2023年、FUJI ROCK FESTIVAL '23への出演が決定し、久しぶりに日本のファンの前でその圧巻のパフォーマンスを見せてくれることが決定している(2001年にFUJI ROCK FESTIVALには2001年に出演しており、FRFへの出演としては実に約22年振りとなる)。

そんな彼女が今から約20年弱前となる2005年に発表したグレイテスト・ヒッツ・コンピレーション・アルバム『THE COLLECTION』が、初めてアナログ盤となって登場することとなった。このコレクションには、全世界に衝撃を与えたワールドワイド・デビュー・シングル「You Oughta Know」をはじめ、グラミー賞ノミネート曲である「Ironic」や「Thank U」といったアラニスの有名なシングルから2005年時の最新ヒット曲「Everything」といったオリジナル・アルバム収録曲や、映画のサウンドトラックに提供していた曲、そしてシールの大ヒット・シングル「Crazy」のカヴァー・ヴァージョンといった、1995年から2005年までの10年間、カナダが生んだ最大のポップ・スターでもあるアラニス・モリセットがアメリカでブレイクした時期の楽曲がたっぷり18曲収録されている。

発売・販売元 提供資料 （2023/06/02）

Alanis Morissette had hits after her 1995 blockbuster Jagged Little Pill -- she also hits before it, but those Canadian teen pop hits have been effectively written out of her official biography to no great loss -- but after that album's nearly three-year reign on the charts in the second half of the '90s, she never dominated radio, MTV, and popular consciousness again. She was always a presence, and each of her records received a flurry of attention upon its initial release, with both 1998's Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie and 2002's Under Rug Swept both debuting at number one on the Billboard charts, but once it became clear to her millions of fans that she was pursuing a weirder, introspective direction in the wake of Jagged Little Pill, they started to slowly drift away and Alanis' status faded with it. She still made good music (even if the albums themselves could be uneven), but she stopped having genuine pop hits. Of course, she kind of stopped making pop music, as the sober nature of her first hits album, 2005's The Collection, proves. This generous 18-track collection has the great majority of her charting singles and it's understandably heavy on Jagged Little Pill songs; there are five here, including "Hand in My Pocket," "Ironic," and "You Oughta Know," but not the radio hit "All I Really Want." Most of the remaining big hits are here, including the non-LP "Uninvited" from the City of Angels soundtrack, "Thank U" (here retitled "Thank You"), and "Hands Clean," but there are several charting singles from Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie that were overlooked ("Joining You," "Unsent," and, most regrettably, "So Pure," the liveliest song on the LP), which suggests that Alanis now also sees that album as an awkward growing period between the angst-ridden adolescent of JPL and her self-consciously mature work of the 2000s. In their place are a hodgepodge of non-LP rarities, largely soundtrack contributions, including "Still" from Dogma and a very bad version of Cole Porter's "Let's Do It (Let's Fall in Love)" from De-Lovely; there's also "Sister Blister" from her overlooked 2002 rarities CD/DVD Feast on Scraps, plus a new cover of Seal's "Crazy" that's startlingly close to the original. All these relative rarities dilute The Collection, making it seem something less than either the hits or the best of Alanis Morissette; it doesn't help that they're clustered together in the second part of the compilation, slowing the momentum of the hit-heavy first half quite a bit. Also, the overall tenor of these songs, whether they're hits or rarities, is just a shade too self-serious; the songs crawl along under the weight of the heavy, atmospheric keyboard and guitars, which may give Alanis plenty of space to run wild lyrically but never quite amount to being as catchy or immediate as any of Jagged Little Pill. As a result, The Collection isn't nearly as a satisfying listen as it should have been, even if it functions reasonably well as a sampler of Alanis' biggest and best post-JPL work. It may have more than its fair share of dull patches, but it does have most of the big songs, which should be enough for many fans who have liked various Alanis songs they've heard on the radio since Jagged Little Pill but never bothered following her after the muddled Supposed Former. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Rovi