Under Rug Swept

Before recording she had not written songs or journal entries for nine months. She went to Toronto unsure whether she would write alone, and in the first week had written seven songs. She worked fast, writing words and music together in around twenty minutes a song and singing in one or two takes, with everything recorded onto DAT. Over the project she wrote 27 songs and cut them to 17. Eight of the others came out later in 2002 on the CD and DVD package Feast on Scraps.

Her band of Nick Lashley, Joel Shearer, Chris Chaney and Gary Novak played most of the instruments, with guests including Flea, Meshell Ndegeocello, Eric Avery and Dean DeLeo. The album was released on 26 February 2002 in the United Kingdom and the next day in the United States. It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with 215,000 copies and at number one in twelve countries. It was certified platinum in the United States and Canada. Hands Clean was the lead single, and she won the Juno for Producer of the Year for it and So Unsexy.

Reviews were generally positive but split. Billboard called it supreme and Robert Christgau praised its catchy choruses, while Rolling Stone gave it three stars and wrote that it drowned in psychobabble, and NME called it tedious.