Since September 2010, this blog has recorded the journey of this music junkie as I attempt to listen to all the music in my CD collection. CDs revisited in their entirety from start to finish - no skipping tracks, no shuffle. Compact Discs only - no vinyl, no tapes, no files.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Alanis Morissette - Jagged Little Pill (1995)


Morissette's voice annoys the hell out of me now, but I must have liked it back in the mid '90s (along with millions of other listeners, apparently). This was a groundbreaking album in that it was the first "angry girl" album (read: anti-male), leading the way for artists such as Pink, Avril Lavigne, and, if you dump her, Taylor Swift. I'm not going to say that Morissette is a no-talent hack, but I will say it was a smart move for her to work with Glen Ballard. Very smart. I would be willing to bet I haven't listened to this CD in more than ten years. If you frequent used CD stores as often as I do, you would notice that every used CD store has at least one copy of this CD (or you can buy it used from Amazon for a penny). Overrated, overhyped, oversold.

Update: In its 2020 list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, Rolling Stone ranked Jagged Little Pill at #69.

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: #1 (12 weeks between Oct 7, 1995 - Sept 7, 1996)

Tracks: You heard all of them on the radio in 1995. The ones I can still mildly tolerate are You Oughta Know, Hand In My Pocket, and Head Over Feet. Regarding the song Ironic: nothing in the song is ironic, yet the song's name is Ironic. This makes the song, in fact, ironic. Apparently, Morissette is a misunderstood lyrical genius.

Common in the mid-'90s, this disc includes a hidden track at the end. I'm glad that annoying practice didn't last long.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: At the time of this album's release, Houston radio station 104 KRBE ("Hits Without the Hype") played Morissette songs all the time. When I say "all the time" I'm thinking that they played at least one Morissette song every hour. That was back when I listened to "terrestrial radio" (an inaccurate term which has become fairly standard).

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