Swallowing Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill
More Beaver Hour Index
For every Justin Bieber and Alex Trebek who manages to gain acceptance in the larger apparatus of pop culture, there are plenty of Canadian bands, films, TV shows, and would-be celebrities who seem uniquely, even despairingly Canadian. The AV Club’s Beaver Hour Index looks back on these Canuck curios, from cultural crossovers to indigenous oddities.
This Week: Alanis Morissette’s breakout third album, Jagged Little Pill (1995)
Part of our Heritage Because: As one of the angriest voices in an era defined by the relationship between women and their songs, the Ottawa-born Morissette set herself apart from our country’s Sarah McLachlan and Jann Arden exports. She wasn’t Liz Phair cool, or PJ Harvey sexy, or Joan Osborne smart. Morissette was the pure pop personification of bitterness—and she was signed to Warner Brothers to boot. Jagged Little Pill sears with raw rock outrage (“You Oughta Know,” “Right Through You”), folky harmonica-tinged philosophy (“You Learn,” “Hand In My Pocket”), and a dictionary lesson for Generation X (the infamous “Ironic,” the throwaway single that defined her).
With the help of American musician Glen Ballard (then notable for producing albums by Wilson Phillips and Paula Abdul), Morissette made over the angst of the riot grrl movement into catchy singles 9-year-old girls and their hip moms screamed in their minivans. The gambit worked: Jagged Little Pill went to No. 1 on both American and Canadian charts, was certified platinum in 13 countries, and netted four Grammys, turning the former wannabe pop singer into a Canadian success story and one of our few homegrown superstars at the time. Because of Jagged Little Pill, Morissette went on to have a blossoming discography and career in Hollywood. (Remember when she played God in Dogma?) She started a relationship with fellow Canuck Ryan Reynolds. The album has such long-lasting appeal that Starbucks convinced the singer to release Jagged Little Pill: Acoustic in 2005. It did gangbusters.
Most Canadian Moment: Smash hit “You Oughta Know,” in which Alanis Morissette admits to blowing Dave “Uncle Joey” Coulier (allegedly) in a Winnipeg theatre. Being emotionally crippled by an American whose fame was most closely associated with voicing a stuffed woodchuck and asking a bunch of child actors to “Cut. It. Out.” Some Canadians will do anything for U.S. approval.
Legacy: Reportedly written after an incident in Los Angeles in which Morissette was robbed at gunpoint, Jagged Little Pill reiterates over and over again that pain is pleasure and that people can be defined by their contradictions. Recuperating from a dark period, Morissette is trying to take stock of what she’s learned with emotions that swiftly turn from love to rage. Even today her ability to shred a larynx over a complete choad like Coulier feels chilling. Getting over a breakup can make emotions become wild and irrational, and the details of what happened always hurt the most. “Ironic” is a song about how the world—or maybe a corrosive force like fate—can have it out for a person. Life is like 10,000 spoons when all you need is a knife, and you might cry over this while rifling through your kitchen.
Still, even in a post-Avril age, Jagged Little Pill remains an iconic album. Morissette’s lyrics are strange; her voice, like a braying banshee’s, begs us to slap her with a splintered ruler. While the album is not without its missteps (you really have to be Catholic to get behind the anti-religion track “Forgiven”), Morissette has a knack for crafting characters who cling to their desperation. Part of the album’s appeal is the conflict between Ballard’s pop gloss and Morissette’s insular, diary-style confessionals. Ballad keeps a soft touch on the guitars and drums, letting the shrieking voicals take stage. But the tame arrangements help cement Morissette’s coffeehouse lyricism into weightier alterna-rock, even making lyrics like “You see me as a sweet back-loaded puppet / and you’ve got meal ticket taste” smart and scorch. While at the time critics were taken aback by Morissette’s beseeching anger (an Entertainment Weekly critic advised the singer to “get new friends”), there’s something really visceral in her condemnation toward characters who refuse to help themselves. In the soft and hazy “Mary Jane,” Alanis’ narrator takes pity on a confused young woman stymied by her neurosis and essentially tells the young woman to grow up the fuck up. Jagged Little Pill became a hit because Morissette refused to be a victim. Hailing from a nation known for its more passive forms of aggressiveness, that’s an even bolder gesture.
Cultural Cringe Factor: 2.
