The album, a follow-up to 1999's all-acoustic "Alanis Unplugged," is peppered with smart, playful tunes. In "Narcissus," she teases an unnamed guy about his selfishness, and in "That Particular Time," she thoughtfully comes to terms with a failed relationship. The result is a complex mix of music that offers a much-needed respite from radio's recent run of prefab pop.

Although she still sometimes uses language as a weapon, she's glad her heart has softened a bit. "I'm not as freaked out by my own anger," explains Morissette, fresh from a yoga session at her Los Angeles home. "I've been angry for so many years that it was really super-toxic in my body. I didn't want it to manifest in some huge disease because I wasn't able to communicate it. Now if something's bothering me, rather than being passive-aggressive about it, I deal with it directly."

Friends such as director Kevin Smith, who cast Morissette as God in his 1999 movie, "Dogma," appreciate her openness. "She's frighteningly honest. And she's more real than most people I hang out with," he says. "She's not afraid to bring to the surface the unsettling or unsaid topics most of us kind of harbor internally and let fester into something else in our relationships."

A certain self-confidence was apparent in Morissette early on. The singer grew up in Ottawa in a close-knit family, raised alongside her twin, Wade, and older brother Chad by her parents, Alan and Georgia. She began singing and acting at 9, soon joining the cast of Nickelodeon's "You Can't Do That on Television." In her teens, she released two albums that quickly established her as Canada's pop princess. At 19, feeling stifled by the pop scene, she moved to California to reinvent herself. There, she released "Jagged Little Pill" to rave reviews (it has sold 14 million copies) and immediately found herself pegged as anything but shallow.

As one might guess from listening to her music, which often consists of straight-up messages to past and present lovers, Morissette has had her share of romantic travails. Case in point: She has just broken off a nearly year-long relationship and says she's ready to be alone for a while.

"I'm very happy in my own skin right now, and the last thing I want to do is start dating somebody," she says firmly. "I need some time to myself. I'll definitely date, but I won't be in a committed, long-term relationship any time soon."

The reason she hesitates to move right into another romance could be that, at 27, Morissette still feels she has plenty of time to be serious. "I don't feel like a full-full-fledged, hard-core adult yet. If someone were to say, 'Are you a responsible person?' I would say yes without even thinking about it. But at the same time, I still feel like a scrappy kid running around [with] mud all over my shirt. I feel like, when I'm 35, I'll be an adult," she says.

Musician Meshell Ndegéocello, who plays on two of "Under Rug Swept's" cuts, says Morissette's introspective nature is her strength. "She's constantly trying to figure out how to change and grow. She's not just dealing with distractions. She's asking some questions. She's looking at herself, and I think that's rare."

It's seeking answers to those questions that keeps Morissette pressing on. Most recently, even in her state of self-determined singlehood, she's been wrestling with whether true love is in her future. "Can somebody live their purpose in life and have that also include a romantic monogamous relationship?" she wonders.

"I think the answer is yes, because of course you can. But it's going to have to look a certain way, and I have to define that still. It's very 27-year-old of me to even be entertaining any of this," she says. "I hear my 35-year-old self laughing at me right now."

Whenever she's finally ready to go for it, interested bachelors would do well to listen to her new CD's first cut, "21 Things I Want in a Lover." So far, a number of potential beaus have thought they've seen themselves in the song. "They're going, 'Yeah, I'm curious, and I'm totally communicative, and I'm spiritually minded,' and you know, they don't even realize they're really not those things," she says, laughing. "So it's interesting. If I can get anywhere around 80%, that would be hysterical.

"When I write these songs, [it's] with my tongue kind of in my cheek, in that I have no expectations. At the very least, I can write it, and then I have to let go."