Good Weather for Alanis: Review for Alanis Morissette’s New Christmas Album
Written by: Sophie Maloney
ARTIST: Alanis Morissette
ALBUM: Good Weather for Immaculate Conception (2026)
GENRE: Holiday/Christmas album, Pop-Rock Holiday
RATING: 7/10
One of the founding mothers of alternative rock Alanis Morissette, has blessed fans with a full length Christmas album after years of dropping covers around the holiday season. The album features an all star lineup of duet partners including but not limited to Brandi Carlile, Martin Short, and Joy Oladokun. But what happens when someone with a strange and painful relationship to Catholicism creates a Christmas album full of standard church songs? With a playful title like “Good Weather for Immaculate Conception” it’s clear Morrisette is staying true to her conflicting perspective on the holiday, without losing the fun.
In the past, Morissette has credited her love for music to her childhood of singing in mass, and being encouraged by other parishioners that she had a real talent. Despite being raised Catholic and attending Catholic school, her view on her religion turned sour after her own experiences of sexism and isolation created a divide between herself and her faith. Morissette has been outspoken in her music about her experience, most notably in the sixth track “Forgiven” off of her smash hit album “Jagged Little Pill”. “Forgiven” wrestles with feelings of guilt and confusion as she points out the hypocrisy of the institution in which she was raised. More apparently, the song is brimming with anger as she seeks justice, singing “What I learned I rejected, but I believe again. I will suffer the consequences of this inquisition if I jump in this fountain, will I be forgiven?” The song concludes with no resolution, showing her distrust in the church and its teachings. For having a song take this strong of a stance against a Catholic upbringing, it seems bizarre for her to create a Christmas album with heavily religious songs. However, Morissette has also found a lot of self expression within the aesthetics of Christianity, specifically Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and Mary Magdalene. She even played an interpretation of the Christian God in the dark 1999 comedy “Dogma”, showing although she may have distanced herself from the church, it still has made a profound impact on herself and her art.
The two original songs written for this album, is where Morissette shines brightest. First up is “To an Empath at Christmas” (whose video depicts Morissette drowning in snow as a metaphor for the holidays bringing along added stress) which is a beautiful, anthemic sounding, pop song that goes grand and over the top at the chorus and immediately gets drawn back by more simple production, making sure Morissette’s message is at the forefront. The song itself is about someone not feeling like themselves around Christmas as they reflect on their life and the state of the world, which is a relatable but under-discussed feeling. Morissette relates to the figure she is singing to by noting “It’s not that I’m ungrateful, just these blue chords in the sound”. It acts as an anti-Christmas, Christmas song, as it doesn’t try to fill the listener with cheer, but instead meet them where they’re at. The second original song “Christmas on the Dancefloor” runs in a new direction sonically, with an over the top pop-rock sound with heavy guitar and a punchy beat, about getting high and partying during the holidays as she tongue and cheek-ly remarks “I know it's not the same as frankincense and myrrh and how I want to pray is by sweating with my body to celebrate his birth”. It still reflects some of the same loneliness as the prior song by showing Morissette is in a strange crossroads of “having no one flying in to see” her and wanting to engage in celebrating the most wonderful time of the year, but not in the way she may have been raised to. She fully commits to the rebellious ex-Catholic girl act, without it feeling cringeworthy as she embraces the absurdity of the song. Although it feels rather out of place between a moving “Ava Maria” and a downtrodden cover of fellow Canadian Joni Mitchell’s “River”, it’s a unique holiday track in both sound and subject matter. The original songs have the best chance of being added to playlists and getting radiotime as Morissette gives the holiday album an appreciated fresh spin, all while unapologetically showing up as herself.
Other standouts from the album include a cover of Roger Whittaker's “Momma Mary” (fans of Whittaker’s will notice Morissette’s album cover art is paying tribute to his own holiday album cover art) featuring singer songwriter Amythyst Kiah. It’s a deeper cut than the rest of the covers on the album, but a strong choice. The track is elevated by Khia’s powerhouse voice, that together with Morisette balances a folk classic with an electronic, pop twist. In “O Tannenbaum”, Morissette sings “O’Christmas Tree” in German, backed by the TRANS VOICES choir. It is a haunting, but poignant rendition, that lends itself to the backing choir without ever getting too grand. Like some of the other more traditional additions, Morissette isn’t trying to achieve the triumphant sentiment normally found in these church hymns, instead, she lets herself be bare and unpolished. It’s clear Morisette has a strong relationship to the material, and wants to highlight the melody and words without the extra fuss of production that a different Christmas album might choose to include. These songs in particular are the best examples of Morissette doing a christmas album her way: on “Momma Mary” she gives her props to Mary in a celebration of women’s strength, and on “O Tannenbaum” she deconstructs the hymn, adding voices that are often excluded from traditional Christianity in a meaningful way.
For such an amazing title and promising cover art featuring Morissette covered in snow with a knowing, facetious smile, the album would have benefitted from taking that concept a bit further in the actual music. Listeners going in with the idea that this is going to be a self-aware Christmas album are bound to be a bit disappointed at how earnest most of the covers are played out. While “What Child is This” for example is beautifully done acoustically and accompanied by choral sounding back up vocals, it leaves something to be desired when faced with an Alanis Morissette Christmas album. This song, like many of the other Christmas classics like “O’Holy Night”, are missing Morissette’s signature alt-forward sound that would have made this album stand out against the already oversaturated holiday album pile. I find that, although Morissette sounds stunning and the expected-christmas-score behind her matches her tone, I’m completely missing her unique voice that made her a star. By that I mean her unabashed sincerity on iconic tracks like “Head Over Feet” or the scathing bite of “You Oughta Know”. Instead she plays it a little too straight and safe on most of the songs. While I do not believe in confining an artist to what they are known for and not letting them evolve, it would have been a treat to see her tackle these well known holiday staples with a bit more personality, something I do not characterize her as typically lacking. I wouldn’t mark this as the end all be all of an otherwise decent Christmas album, but more outright “Alanis” could’ve been the sparkly, red ribbon tied on top of a pristinely wrapped gift.
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