Friday Song: “Uninvited”
Brandi Carlile covers Alannis Morissette’s 1998 classic in a wild live performance
Alanis Morissette’s 1995’s album Jagged Little Pill won five Grammy Awards and became one of the best-selling albums of all time.
Before her next album was released (Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, 1998), fans were greeted with “Uninvited,” a song written for the 1998 movie City Of Angels, starring Nicolas Cage as an angel who falls in love with a mortal woman played by Meg Ryan.
The arrangement — four notes in D with a flat sixth — gives the song a haunting dissonance that builds to a crescendo and retreats with ease. The chords mainly switch between D and Gm, embracing the flat sixth and introducing the minor needed to give you chills.
In 1999, the song won Grammy Awards for Best Rock Song and Best Female Rock Vocal. It also earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Song in a Motion Picture.
The performance of “Uninvited” featured this week was recorded last month at the Newport Folk Festival, and features Brandi Carlile and her band. Carlile’s ability to sing with power, range, and grit is on full display.
It’s probably a soon-to-be-classic performance of a now-classic song.
Enjoy!