Alanis Morissette is probably one of the foremost female music artists to create so strong a wave in the mid-90’s that its effects are felt even today. Her turbulent yet though provoking album ’Jagged Little Pill’ is the epitome of postmodern angst expressed in musical terms. She conveys intense emotions that complex her and in the process echoes feelings that are shared by many women but never revealed in the open.
From a self-made Canadian pop-diva that she was in the eighties she radically transformed herself into a confessional singer/songwriter full of zealous alternative energy. Her style paved the way for the emerging wave of women artists (Jewel, Joan Osborne, Shawn Colvin, Shirley Manson from ’Garbage’, Meredith Brooks, Fiona Apple, etc).
The very first song on the album ’All I Really Want’ sets the tone for the other tracks that follow. But nothing can formally prepare you for the onslaught that can shake your very foundations.
The raw, blatant, volcanic brutality in ’You Oughta know’ just knocks you off your socks. I don’t think I’ve ever heard so frank a retort against an unfaithful partner like this one. ’And I’m here to remind you / Of the mess you left when you went away….’
’Perfect’ encompasses the pressure a child experiences. It seems very common an issue to write and sing about but it the sheer pathos in Morissette’s lament that is to be reckoned with.
However there is common myth that ’Jagged little Pill’ is an album dedicated to the pursuit of pent up rage and pressurized anger. Well, anger isn’t the only sentiment to be given articulation here. There is a strain of complacency in the sedate ’Hand in my Pocket’. This song somehow gets you as the listener in touch with words that cross your mind time and again but never materialize at the tip of your tongue. In an indirect way this song actually celebrates the joy of being alive in this cruel, harsh world.
’Right Through You’ is similar to ’You Oughta Know’ in tone but it differs in the execution and the depth of lyrical outburst. ’Forgiven’ is a confession dripping with gradual realization of truths that are often buried as a result of social and domestic conditioning.
On the second side ’You Learn’ kicks off the rest of the journey into self-discovery in the form of a shared philosophy discussed before but never in such casual depth. ’You live you learn / You love you learn…’
The penultimate post grunge modern nineties love song is ’Head Over Feet’. It sure beats the saccharine sweet, cliched, contrived puppy love laced attributes of other pop lovesongs.
’Mary Jane’ is a dedication to any woman who has faced a common case of low self-esteem.
’It’s a black fly in your Chardonnay / A death row pardon two minutes too late / Isn’t it ironic…. don’t you think?’ These are the initial lines of the chart topper ’Ironic’ that get you in touch with the paradoxical truth of little nuances in life.
The last two tracks ’Not The Doctor’ and ’Wake Up’ are on a more cathartic plain where Alanis finds herself getting rid of the complexities that plague her worldly existence. They round up the album in a rather nonchalant manner.
It is not often that we come across a brand of music that lays bare thoughts as flagrantly as this one. Her outburst is more than a lashing out at an imaginary enemy. It is a layered metaphor on the causality that our decadent survival is based upon.
Listening to this remarkable piece of work will surely put together into context an array of random thoughts. A breakthrough album from a daring, modern, young singer/songwriter.