Everyone knows Jagged Little Pill, giving it the fitting placement of Alanis Morisette’s essential album as per Apple Music’s curation team.
Growing up, songs like “Ironic” and “Hand in My Pocket” were always playing on the radio and if your Canadian Gen X parents were anything like mine, the rest of the album played on perpetual repeat during car rides. I distinctly it being the background to car rides home.
I cannot recall a time in my life that I didn’t find Morisette’s drawling angst and eternal sarcasm catchy and coming up on the 30th anniversary of its release, Jagged Little Pill is still one of the most influential Canadian albums of all time.
But the question becomes, what about Jagged Little Pill has made it so iconic? Is it the album’s muddy, distorted electric guitar backbone? Morisette’s guttural vocals and unrelenting lyrical brilliance? Or is it simply the fact that Alanis Morisette picked the perfect time to make her mark on the completely male-dominated genre of alternative music? While it could be any of these individual factors or a combination of them, Jagged Little Pill is undeniably a seminal example of female nerve.
Often referred to as a feminist manifesto, Jagged Little Pill sold more than 33 million copies upon its release and went on to win various awards at the Grammys. The album’s release was a turn in a different direction for Morisette, whose prior (relatively unsuccessful) work had given her a dance-pop image and the moniker “Too Hot” Alanis. On a journey to share her truth, the album everyone has come to love today was formed. “I think [Warner] thought it was a little too caustic, and they were just afraid of how intense it was, to be honest,” Morisette told CBC. “And I said, ‘Well, I’m 19 and I’m intense.’”
Opening with the tumultuous “All I Really Want,” Jagged Little Pill tells you exactly what it is all about within 60 seconds of its first track. Bursting through the gate with a thundering electric guitar and screeching harmonica, “All I Really Want” begs to be heard, just like Morisette. It was everything that everyone at Warner had worried it would be, but that’s what made it so good.
Continuing with iconic tracks like “Hand in My Pocket,” “Right Through You,” “Ironic” and “Not the Doctor,” Jagged Little Pill is a masterpiece from start to finish. And while the album manages to bring its listeners all over the place throughout its 49-minute run time, the sonic atmosphere remains the same, making it one of those uniquely perfect albums you can play front to back without losing any of its angsty energy.
