The Straits Times (November 1996)

(spelling errors are from the paper)

Enough of Alanis, try Kristin, Fiona, Norma...

- Paul Zach

Radio stations the world over have overdosed oil Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill. In fact, the 22-year-old Canadian bubble-grunge star could retire comfortably tomorrow. (Many of us wish she would). Pill has sold more than 13 million copies, according to the latest Billboard magazine statistics, in little more than a year. That puts it near far more worthy albums as Fleetwood Mac's Rumours and Led Zeppelin IV as one of the bestselling albums ever.

So record companies hoping to sell another Morissette to boost their bottom lines are putting every woman who sounds and looks angst-ridden in front of a microphone and video camera. But getting lost in the frenzy are excellent releases from female artistes, old and new.

Has anyone out there heard Tracy Bonham's weighty The Burdens Of Being Upright or Patti Rothberg's cutting Between The 1 And The 9?

And whatever happened to Maria Mckee's acerbic Life Is Sweet, Aimee Mann's intelligent I'm With Stupid, and Tori Amos' fiery Boys For Pele?

The legendary Patti Smith eloquent Gone Again also came and went, unnoticed by radio programming computers that had not been invented yet when she was changing the face of music.

Ironically, to use the word correctly, after rotating Morissette's inept Ironic and most of the rest of the songs on her album every hour on the hour, stations have found no time for female artistes more deserving of airplay.

All this was not lost on Kristin Barry, whose recent gig at the Hard Rock Cafe was seen by few, and virtually ignored by the press and TV, as well as radio.

"It's just pure timing that this is happening now. Virgin would have released my record had there been an Alanis Morissette or not. It's very ironic to me," she said in a frank interview, pausing to smile and substitute the word "funny". "It's very funny to me after years and years of struggling and finally finding a company that was willing to let me do things on my terms that my record was released in this era of this stuff going on."

Her album, The Beginning, The Middle, The End (Virgin), is far better than its title, easily three stars out of a maximum five.

Guitar-heavy tracks such as Seeing Gun and Gotta Go belie her Seattle roots and upbringing, but eschew the fatalism of grunge for an "I'll-muddle-through-instead-of-shooting-myself" tack.

Certainly there is none of the bargain-basement angst of Morissette.

"I think this whole angst thing is almost taken too seriously," said Barry, 26. "It's not so much like the angst as just being honest about your feelings, and just being honest about the insecurities of young adulthood. It's a weird time for most people and it's just vocalising it."

Of course, she would like others to hear what she has to say too.

"I just hope with all these women that are out there being grouped together, that people will be able to pull them out of the group and look at them for who they are individually. It's not just one club," she said. "We're very different, you know."

Other current offerings from the different women that you should turn off Morissette and the radio to listen to include:

- Tidal, Fiona Apple (WORK): At only 18, the youngest of the new wave of female singer-songwriters has put out a debut that is beyond her years. On Criminal, she roars. With The First Taste, she gets soft and sexy like Sade. Like the sea. ****

- The Way I Should, Iris Dement (Warner Bros): I prefer the stripped-down arrangements if Infamous Angel because they let her waif-like voice send chills up my spine. But it is fun to hear her get political on the poignant There's A Wall In Washington and the angry Wasteland of the Free. ***1/2

- Norma Waterson (Hannibal): There Ain't No Sweet Man That's Worth The Salt Of My Years would be the year's best single if it was released as one. This British grandmother's solo debut is 30 years overdue. ****

- Nine Objects of Desire, Suzanne Vega (A & M): Another veteran who has mellowed like ageing wine. Her most accomplished outing yet. ****

- Man, Neneh Cherry (Virgin): Not quite up to her criminally-ignored 1992 masterpiece, Homebrew, but still a potent mix by current standards. ***

- Hits;Misses, Joni Mitchell (Reprise): This venerable diva of alternative music vowed never to release a greatest hits album. But her label has jumped on the Morissette bandwagon by releasing two. Her Hits features Help Me, Big Yellow Taxi, Both Sides Now, and others. Hits ****; Misses ****

- Dance Hall At Louise Point, John Parish and Polly Jean Harvey (Island): More PJ than Parish, she both scores - Taut - and strikes out - her cover of Peggy Lee's Is That All There Is? - this time. ***