Aiming High and Wide

From a distance, Sheryl Crow and Alanis Morissette must sometimes appear to be sorority sisters in the pop arena.

Both are Grammy-winning singer-songwriters who have sold millions of records and are featured prominently in every discussion you’re likely to read about the rise of women in ‘90s pop-rock.

Up close, however, the differences have been immense--and they were on display in the artists’ separate weekend concerts.

Ever since her debut U.S. album, 1995’s “Jagged Little Pill,” Morissette has been a daring artist who thrives on breaking new ground, emotionally and musically.

By contrast, Crow demonstrated early in her career that she is a conservative who seems chiefly intent on working with the frameworks set by her favorite influences from the ‘60s and ‘70s, a wide list that ranges from the Rolling Stones to Rickie Lee Jones.

The encouraging thing about the highlights of Crow’s concert Friday at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood is that she showed signs of growth in both the character and ambition of her music.

The best thing about Morissette’s set Saturday at the Cox Arena in San Diego was that she gave no hint of easing up. She remains a purposeful and demanding artist.

In Crow’s first two albums, 1993’s “Tuesday Night Music Club” and 1996’s “Sheryl Crow,” she seemed like a contemporary version of Billy Joel--a gifted technician who understands the elements of a hit, but is limited by a lack of original--or at least insightful--ideas.

However, Crow demonstrated signs of searching for her own voice in the best moments of last year’s “The Globe Sessions” album--and those highlights were accentuated Friday.

Where Crow was a somewhat anonymous figure in concert at the Wiltern Theatre two years ago, she was often commanding this time, showing more individuality in her singing and in her arrangements.

In one striking sequence spotlighting three songs from the “Globe” album, Crow and her flexible, six-piece band showed both personality and range, moving from “Anything But Down,” a defiant response to romantic disappointment that flowed with the seductive gallop of a Fleetwood Mac track, to “It Don’t Hurt.”

The latter is a spunky tale about someone wounded by love, told with all the moody imagery and country/blues flavor that critics found so appealing last year in Lucinda Williams’ “Car Wheels on a Gravel Road” album.

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Crow, who played guitar on most numbers, followed with “Riverwide,” another song of romantic upheaval whose Gaelic edges and mystical tone sound like something you’d find on a Daniel Lanois recording.

Rather than being seduced by her success, Crow apparently has been challenged by it. Even in the night’s best moments, however, she didn’t even begin to approach the heights of Morissette.

The first thing you noticed at the start of the latter’s set Saturday was that her musicians were positioned far to the rear and sides of the stage.

That’s because Morissette tends to get caught up in the fervor of the music and frequently starts spinning around--or even bopping about the stage--in a sort of tribal, trance-like fashion.

Similarly, Morissette’s music tends to ricochet emotionally, moving from the snarl of “You Oughta Know” and accusation of “Baba” to the warm embrace of “Thank U” and the sweet surrender of “Uninvited.”

It’s a sweeping range that mocks the “angry young woman” tag that was placed on Morissette following the success of “You Oughta Know,” the career-launching hit about a woman scorned.

Even in “Jagged Little Pill,” Morissette was far more than a one-dimensional artist, but the growth in the new “Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie” album has pushed her to a whole new, captivating level.

The album is about the search for spiritual peace and self-esteem, and many of the songs are uncompromising accounts of that journey. Because of the increased complexity of her music, the new show is not nearly as accessible as the ones that followed the release of “Jagged Little Pill,” but it is a far more rewarding one. The music itself occupies the same mainstream pop-rock base as Crow’s, but it has a far harder and more densely layered edge.

Morissette has redesigned the “Jagged” hits to give them a fresher tone--and the changes don’t always work. “Hand in My Pocket,” a centerpiece of the last tour, has lost much of its upbeat, anthem-like quality this time.

But the revisions are necessary for Morissette to feel comfortable with the old songs. As much as she demands of her audience, she demands far more of herself. She has long known what Crow seems to be just discovering--the challenge isn’t to simply work within pop boundaries, but to stretch them.

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Another thing the women had in common over the weekend was appealing opening acts. Once again, however, Morissette had the edge.

Crow’s show was opened by Eagle-Eye Cherry, a singer-songwriter whose style combines the folk lilt of Cat Stevens with some of the funk-edged commentary of a Curtis Mayfield or a Stevie Wonder. He hasn’t matured into a fully satisfying artist yet, but he and his band showed signs of taste and restraint.

Garbage, which was Morissette’s opening act, is an inviting, if narrowly focused rock band with gentle but enticing industrial undercurrents. The group serves up moody pieces that highlight emotional extremes, but is at its best when, as on the classic “Only Happy When It Rains,” surrendering to the pure pop instincts of such predecessors as Blondie and Eurythmics.

* Alanis Morissette and Garbage play Tuesday at the Arrowhead Pond, 2695 E. Katella Ave., Anaheim, 7:30 p.m. $35, (714) 704-2500. Also Wednesday at the Universal Amphitheatre, 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, 8:15 p.m. Sold out. (818) 622-4440.