Such Pretty Forks in the Road is the ninth studio album from Alanis Morissette. The album was originally to be released on May 1, 2020 but was ultimately postponed to July 30, 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is her first studio album in eight years, her first new release in seven years, and the first release of any kind since the four-disc collector’s edition of Jagged Little Pill in 2015.

Reasons I Drink was released as the album’s first single on December 2, 2019. Smiling, originally written for the Jagged Little Pill Musical, was announced as the second single, and was released on February 21, 2020. Following the announcement of the album’s delay, a third single entitled Diagnosis was released on April 24, 2020.

01. Smiling – 4:17
02. Ablaze – 3:57
03. Reasons I Drink – 3:36
04. Diagnosis – 4:49
05. Missing the Miracle – 3:33
06. Losing the Plot – 3:57
07. Reckoning – 3:30
08. Sandbox Love – 4:12
09. Her – 4:10
10. Nemesis – 5:56
11. Pedestal – 4:08

Alanis had been working on the album since at least mid-2017. In August 2017, she revealed the name of a new song entitled Reckoning on Anna Faris’ podcast Unqualified. Alanis described this song as “patriarchy falling down” and said it was in reference to her day in court in regards to the trial in which others were accused of embezzling from her. In early October 2017, on her own podcast Conversation with Alanis Morissette, she detailed a new song called Diagnosis, which talks about suffering from postpartum depression. Later that month, Alanis was invited to perform at the tribute concert Linkin Park and Friends: Celebrate Life in Honor of Chester Bennington. She performed Castle of Glass and premiered a new song of her own entitled Rest, though it ultimately did not make the track listing.

In March 2018, she previewed another new song from the album called Ablaze that was dedicated to her children. In August 2018, she stated that the new album would be a piano record and that Rest would make the final cut on Laura Whitmore’s Sunday Session on BBC Radio 5 Live. In August 2019, Alanis revealed that she was working with Alex Hope and Catherine Marks on the as-of-then untitled record.

She announced the album in December 2019, also debuting Reasons I Drink and the song Smiling during a performance at the Apollo Theater in New York City on 2 December, the latter of which was described as “sanguine” by Suzy Exposito of Rolling Stone.

The album was officially announced in December 2019 and added that the first single would be Reasons I Drink, which would be released the subsequent week. Reasons I Drink and Smiling were performed live for the first time during a performance at the Apollo Theater in New York City on December 2, 2019 to celebrate the launch of Jagged Little Pill: The Musical.

On April 16, 2020, Morissette announced that the album would be postponed to a later date from its initial release date of May 1, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and announced that Diagnosis would be released as the third single on April 24, 2020. Digital retailers later showed a release date of September 18, 2020, though Alanis would confirm herself on May 22, 2020 that the album would be released on July 31, 2020.