Ah, one of my many breakup songs...it's amazing how the end of a long-term relationship (even a BAD one) can be such a catharsis and a productive time for a songwriter (or an aspiring one, as I was back in 1996 when this was penned). I really found solace in the complete emotional detachment that I utilized to deal with the end of that relationship. Which, besides being a clever play on words, really represented how it felt during that time. I spent a lot of time thinking and drinking, trying to figure out what went wrong, until I realized that nothing had gone wrong, it had gone RIGHT for once. There's nothing quite like a relationship that should have ended a year before it actually did. Going back, I think I might have actually done it differently, and I would have ended it when I stopped being treated kindly. Of course, I didn't know, so the whole, "oh, it would have been too much of a pain since we had all our friends in common" thing seemed so huge but ended up being nothing.
I quote Alanis (who's the only one I feel like attributing it to - I know it's not really hers): "You live, you learn."
My little brother Caleb pronounces solace like "soulless", so he thought it was even more clever as wordplay, since they were homonyms. Alas, not my intent, but a fun little tidbit nonetheless... This was recorded in the basement radio production studio at Wright Hall at my alma mater, Shippensburg University in April or May of '97. More details of the session can be found in the "About" link for the song "Liberation"