Under Rug Swept - Critical Reception

Critical Reception

Reviews of Under Rug Swept on its release were generally positive. Billboard described the album as "supreme" and "very human ... satisfies with moments of darkness, enlightenment, anger, bittersweet tension, and happiness ... Although 2002 is still young, consider Under Rug Swept one of the year's best." Q magazine said the album was "a smart shot across the bows ... some of the most inviting music of her career ... Morissette has fashioned a lyrical Trojan Horse to be wheeled into unsuspecting homes for months to come." Robert Christgau wrote, "The pop-rock here lacks the faux-punk edge ... But Morissette instantly demonstrates her gift for the catchy ... topping memorable verse with indelible chorus, she's a self-actualized nut who goes for what she wants, exactly as pretentious as the college girls she represents for." According to LA Weekly, the album "is Alanis Morissette in top form, exercising her God-given right to vent and sound beautiful doing so."

Other critical appraisals were less favorable. Rolling Stone, in a three-star review, wrote "The music is brawny and meticulous ... Under Rug Swept just about drowns in psychobabble. While the tone of the songs, and the grain of Morissette's voice, promise intimacy, there's hardly a private detail anywhere." Entertainment Weekly said "the album's garbled title is also preparation for some of the clumsiest lyrics to be heard on a pop record in years ... The songs are riddled with such overwritten Psych 101 ruminations." The Village Voice criticised the lyrics, saying "Much like even non-football fans used to be mesmerized by Cosell's genius for never using two words when 23 would do, you don't have to be a love-damaged 17-year-old girl to find Under Rug Swept's dense verbiage a trip. Words tumble forth and arrange themselves kaleidoscopically into all sorts of unusual categories ... I'm just not sure that pop music should come out of a thesaurus." NME called it "a tedious album" with "overwrought folk-rock like 'Surrendering' and 'Hands Clean' destined for a thousand organic juice bars. Lyrically, it's often hilarious ... This record moves way beyond armchair psychology — in fact, there are armchairs that have a cannier grasp of the mind."

Under Rug Swept received a Juno Award nomination in the category of "Pop Album of the Year". Morissette herself won the "Jack Richardson Producer of the Year" award for the songs "Hands Clean" and "So Unsexy", and she was nominated in the "Artist of the Year" category. (For more information, see Juno Awards of 2003.)