Alanis Morissette channeled mothers across the world during quarantine when she performed with her daughter in tow on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, which will air on Thursday night.
Morissette and her band joined the late-night show virtually to debut “Ablaze,” off her ninth studio album, Such Pretty Forks in the Road, which is out Friday. Posted up in what looks to be an enviable library, the singer holds her daughter in her arms as she sings. The toddler predictably steals the show — and Morissette’s headphones. Just like the clip reflects as she holds her child, Morissette’s song is a dedication to her children, where she sings about their strengths and encourages them that they can persevere even when conflict arises. “My mission is to keep the light in your eyes ablaze,” she sings on the chorus, between conversations with her adorable show-stealing daughter.
The musician recently opened up about her struggles with postpartum depression in an interview with Rolling Stone. She currently has three children, the youngest of whom is eight months old. “The first two times I had it, it was more sort of depressive symptoms,” she said. “This time around, maybe one percent is depression. The rest is just anxiety and all the pictures and all the horrifying parts of PPD [postpartum depression.] But yeah, sleep is scarce. And I sleep whenever I can, which is not a large amount of time, but enough to keep going.”
Such Pretty Forks in the Road is Morissette’s first album in eight years — in part because she was busy with her children. It was set to debut in May but was delayed due to the pandemic — as was her 25th-anniversary tour for Jagged Little Pill.
“I just thought it intuitively doesn’t feel right to be putting a record out about one woman’s crisis when we’re in the middle of a pandemic,” she said. “I got a 50-50 reaction depending upon which friend I told that information to. One would say, ‘Yeah, wait, please. I can’t take any more.’ And then other friends said the total opposite thing: ‘Are you kidding me? I want to lose myself in your story and in your words.’”