Alanis Morissette

Jagged Little Pill

Pseudo-macho posturing, ideal for the Australian market

Review Score:

(2/10)
"Jagged Little Pill", the first major release by Alanis Morrisette, became within a year only the second album to top a million sales in Australia. Given Alanis frequently being compared with the brilliant female alternative rockers of the last thirty years or so, the vast sales in Australia would seem as a surprise.

However, any listen to "Jagged Little Pill" reveals no signs of the intense, dramatic, feminine tones that can lift music to considerable heights. The record was basically an undistinctive alternative rock album, with Alanis showing little tendency to actually sing but rather to shriek. Even though the musicians include such capable figures as Benmont Tench of the Heartbreakers, they were blurred over dense but tuneless guitars. This was seen at its worst on "You Oughta Know", which I have found really annoying ever since hearing it for the first time. Even the soft opening of "Ironic" was lost in the desire to create stereotyped hard rock, and "You Learn" alone maintained anything more than such noisy hard rock. Alanis' following album did at least try to move beyond these confines with little success.

Moreover Alanis lacked Tori Amos' superb ability at wordplay that made her able to describe breaking free from a strict religious upbringing without sheer preachiness. Her lyrics did describe personal struggles, but she showed little depth or analysis.

If you wish to see what distinctive contributions women have made to music over recent decades, skip this album. "Jagged Little Pill" was/is closer to the pseudo-macho posturers like Suzi Quatro and Pat Benatar, for whom the Australian market has always been a heaven.

Instead, have a look at Laura Nyro's seminal work and late 1960s English folk/rock, and check out Kate Bush, Tori Amos, the Cocteau Twins and Laika to look at truly feminine music.

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