"Eight Easy Steps" | ||||
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Single by Alanis Morissette | ||||
from the album So-Called Chaos | ||||
Released | October 19, 2004 | |||
Genre | Rock | |||
Length | 2:52 | |||
Label | Maverick | |||
Songwriter(s) | Alanis Morissette | |||
Producer(s) |
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Alanis Morissette singles chronology | ||||
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Music video | ||||
"Eight Easy Steps" on YouTube |
"Eight Easy Steps" is a rock song written by Alanis Morissette for her sixth studio album, So-Called Chaos . The album's opening track, it was released in 2004 as the So-Called Chaos's third (and final) single. The song may be seen as discussing self-help, with the message that it is the "course of a lifetime", [1] but the help that is actually "offered" in the song is tongue-in-cheek, with lines like "How to lie to yourself and thereby to everyone else" and "How to control someone to be a carbon copy of you."
The song reached number nine on the Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play and number 27 on the Adult Top 40. [2]
"Eight Easy Steps" is a song composed in the key of A♭ major. [3] It is written in common time and moves at a moderately fast 132 beats per minute. [3] Its verses are set to a Middle Eastern beat. [4] Morissette's vocal range spans nearly an octave and a half, from A♭3 to C5. [3]
Stylus Magazine gave the song a negative review, finding it a "flaccid and innocuous" attempt to recreate the hard rock sound of her 1995 single "You Oughta Know". [5] PopMatters disagreed, commenting that the chorus's "one shining moment of Alanis Anger" was one of the album's few energetic moments. [4] The New York Times called the song "triumphant", [6] and The Guardian found the song's distortion effective, as well as its "Nine Inch Nails-like metallic rage". [7]
The song's music video was directed by Liz Friedlander. [8] The video opens with a scene of Morissette performing with her backing band. It then presents sequences from Morissette's previous music videos, television appearances like You Can't Do That on Television , and home videos in reverse chronological order. The scenes are digitally edited to create the appearance that Morissette had sung "Eight Easy Steps" in them. [9] It took Morissette over 16 hours, to recreate her facial expressions from the clips. [9] Friedlander commented that "It was eerie to watch the footage of present day Alanis run side by side with the early footage…Her ability to match her old actions was uncanny." [9] The video peaked at #11 on the VH1 Top 20 Video Countdown.
A second acoustic single was planned with more tracks from the Vancouver Sessions. However, it was scrapped before it was released.
Chart (2004) | Peak position |
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Canada Hot AC Top 30 ( Radio & Records ) [10] | 16 |
US Adult Pop Airplay ( Billboard ) [11] | 27 |
US Dance Club Songs ( Billboard ) [12] | 9 |
US Dance Singles Sales ( Billboard ) [13] | 3 |
US Hot Singles Sales ( Billboard ) [14] | 37 |