Red Peppers (Jagged Little Pill - Alanis Morissette)

Member Name: Seres

Product:	Jagged Little Pill - Alanis Morissette
Date:	29/02/08 (46 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Every song has something going for it - power, subtlety . . . lack of subtlety

Disadvantages: If you don't like her voice, the album sinks

You can't find the first two albums by songstress Alanis Morissette anywhere, because she has a secret. Before she became the terrifying force that spurs along Jagged Little Pill, album no 3 for her, she was a dance singer. Yes, she was one of those twee pop stars who sing about how much they like boys and isn't basketball just the coolest and all those sorts of things. You think I'm kidding? Look her up for yourself. Alanis Morissette used to be a cute kiddie pop singer.

I only mention that because on this album she is frequently terrifying. Come 1995 the once permed teenager became a force of nature that crushed all men before her in a cavalcade of broken genitals. She had some bad relationships, you see. Really bad ones. So bad, she wanted to destroy these men in front of the rest of the world, possibly burn all their possessions, and then stand on top of the burning rubble and proclaim "I love the smell of a broken man in the morning". Or, y'know, something similar. She started writing lyrics that were far different to anything she ever wrote before, confessional and bitter lyrics that were fuelled by the bad men in her life and the panic attacks she'd been having since she was mugged whilst in LA. By a man. All these things came together under the careful eye of Glen Ballard, her producer, and formed Jagged Little Pill, and album which made her famous, and she could never repeat again in her career, try though she did.

"You Oughta Know" is the track we should start with here, because it's the song which most embodies the rest of the album - and is the most famous, probably. It just so happens to be the most bitter and angry song anyone has every performed. Sure, some people do death metal, and My Chemical Romance love a good whine, but they can't come close to Morissette's lyrical prowess. She isn't holding back, and every curse-ridden word packs a punch - "every time I scratch my nails down someone else's back I hope you feel it" springs to mind. The guitars squeal out with violent distortions, and the way the song starts off quietly, before descending into anarchy, before quietening again before she prepares her final assault... it's one of the defining songs of the time. Nothing else on the album sounds quite as angry as this track, but it really does have a kick, even now.* Elsewhere on the album, the music is more laid back, and the songs reminisce and consider more than they do criticise and attack. "You Learn", for example, is about getting experience out of life. The guitars swim around lazily, and the chorus is delivered as a chant that can be seen either as wisdom or as desperation.

The general sound of the album is alternate rock. Guitars are found in most every song, rumbling and providing discord for Morissette's yelp of a voice. She's good at shouting, and the down-tempo songs work well too, although it can be damn-near impossible to make out what she's saying. "All I Really Want", the poppy harmonica jazz session that opens the album, is a fine demonstration of this. She yelps and yodels and whines and yells. It's not a bad song for that either, and opens the album strongly, preparing you for what you're about to hear. "Not The Doctor" and "Mary Jane" pass by with this same ear for a hook, having decent melodies that make up for lyrics which can be a little cloying. Both tracks are quieter affairs that open up during the chorus, which seems to be the case for many of the songs here. "Right Through You", the shortest song here, begins as a ballad before fuzzy guitars crash out as she declares her lover to be truly transparent. In all of these songs, you can see where she's coming from, because she puts herself into each song in a way she has rarely been able to since.

"Ironic" is another pop gem, tucked away halfway through the album. It starts off with just the acoustic guitar accompanying her as she lists off things that she deems to be ironic, in an attempt to sum up life itself. Then, of course, comes the big chorus "it's like rain on your wedding day/it's a free ride when you've already paid" and so on, with gigantic guitars and stuttering drums accompanying her - but her voice dwarfs it all. And of course, the fact that the song isn't much ironic is ironic, don't you think? In a similar way, her voice stands out all over "Head Over Feet", my favourite on the album. It's never brash in the way some of the other songs are, and retains a strong sense of melody as the guitars grunt their way into place and she sings with steel "you've already won me over/in spite of me". There's a wholly unnecessary harmonica bit, but who doesn't love unnecessary harmonica? If I had my way, there would be an unnecessary harmonica solo in every song! There's no harmonica in the closing track "Wake Up", which is just as well because it has enough going on as it is. A quick, quiet guitar shuffle which veers from ballad to uptempo song to middle-of-the-road weariness, it recalls in tone the sort of song Beck was putting out when he was mid-Odelay. And as a song, it works out better than "Perfect", a track I have no love for. The first ballad on the album, it doesn't work for me because it seems so clichéd, in terms of the writing. The execution is fine, but something doesn't sit right about the thing, far as I'm concerned. It also follows "You Oughta Know", and there probably isn't one song which could stand up to that sort of pressure.

"Forgiven" stands out from all the other songs by a mile, being as it is different in style to the other songs. The longest song, and kinda an epic, it shows off Morrissette's vocal abilities, as she pulls out all the stops on it. At first coy and mysterious, she leads the song into familiar rock n' roll territory, before then pulling back entirely and letting rip with a banshee wail of a chorus that has echoes and shading and all kinds of spooky technical stuff going on. I tend to really like this song, because it wilfully stands out from all the others, and provides a bit of overwrought majesty to the album. "Hand In My Pocket" does the opposite, by balancing out the album and providing the anchor for all the other songs. It has a very familiar opening guitar line, and the lyrics recall "Ironic" in a way, as most of them are oxymoronic statements. It's a song of reassurance, that everything is going to work out later on, even if now it kinda sucks to be her. And it's a good, reliable sort of track for pulling you out of a malaise. Another great pop/rock song.

It's very hard to criticise this album, because so much goes right. There are four or five songs in here which are truly iconic, which stand up and fit in with the best songs ever made. There are other songs which don't have quite that sort of power, but which fit in to the tone of the album perfectly. And there are one or two brave mistakes. Yet overall, what we have here is a powerful album, that will sound as bold and creative in 50 years as it does now. And I say all this, even though she scares me. Jagged Little Pill is one of those albums which everyone should have in their collection. That's how important and vital the music sounds, that's how essential the record is. Go.


* At the end of most versions of this album is an alternate version of You Oughta Know, which has a slightly boosted bass. What's more interesting is the song that follows on from this, a short and powerful lament that recalls the moment Alanis realised she was being cheated on in painful, chilling detail. It ends the album on a disturbing note of clarity.

Summary: An album that doesn't like men