Let’s Write Reviews, Like It’s 1995…

I’m following Bobby’s lead here, and posting up a review I did a while ago for the yet-possibly-neverto-be-released Underground Wires. The premise was that all the albums reviewed in the ‘zine were to be from 1995, and the reviews had to be written from the perspective of one living in said year. Riveting? Probably not. Pretentious? Fuck yeah. So, I give you- Alanis Morissette- Jagged Little Pill

Morissette’s debut L.P. covers a large swathe of lyrical territory as yet un-mined by modern female songwriters. Topics such as irony, lifestyle recommendations and domestic maintenance assail the listener’s ears, demanding to be acknowledged and appreciated. However, Morissette’s self-righteousness doesn’t go down easy. Hers is a jagged pill indeed, and the album’s single love song – ‘Head Over Feet’ doesn’t provide enough sugar to coat her noveau-feminist bile.

Side A begins with her list of demands, in the form of ‘All I Really Want’. Ms Morissette wishes for ‘some peace man. A place to find a common ground.’ It would appear that Morissette is unwilling to take responsibility for her own actions, and to take an active role in forming her own destiny. ‘All I Really Want’ is less a manifesto of wants, more a whinge-list of things she wants done. ‘You Oughta Know’ sees Morissette reminding her erstwhile lover that ‘I’m here to remind you/ of the mess you left when you went away’. Presumably her beau didn’t do the dishes before leaving for work in the morning. Why Ms Morissette can’t clean up the mess herself is left unexplained. When Side B opens, Alanis calms down (being angry is very tiring) and concedes that one must learn how to roll with life’s ups, and downs. The mood becomes less angsty, more cod-philosophical. ‘You Learn’ is filled with regrets posing as life lessons. She recommends ‘getting your heart trampled on’, ‘biting off more than you can chew’ and ‘sticking your foot into your mouth’. Fair enough, but when these axioms are placed next to other recommendations such as ‘walking around naked in your living room’ one begins to question their validity. Alanis is adamant though, that life offers ample opportunity for learning. The situations in which can learn are startling in their abundance. One can learn while grieving, choking, laughing, choosing, praying, asking, bleeding, loving, crying, losing, screaming, and most transcendentally of all, one can learn while living. ‘You Learn’ is but the tip of Ms Morissette’s contemplative iceberg, however. ‘Ironic’ is 4 verses, 3 repeated choruses, and an outro of linguistic incompetence. Irony is the outcome of events contrary to what might have been expected. As Perry White said in last week’s episode of ‘Lois and Clark’- ‘a fly in your Chardonnay? That’s not irony, that’s just bad luck.’ Irony is neither ‘a traffic jam when you’re already late’ nor is it ‘rain on your wedding day’. These are examples of bad planning ensuing from passivity, not of irony. One can only presume that the bride and the frustrated motorist had followed Side A’s Alanis’s example of whinging instead of acting, resulting in unhappiness for all. They can always learn from their misfortune though, I’m sure.

The instrumentation on the album is sparse- guitars, harmonicas, drums and organs- and mostly played by Morissette herself. Surprisingly, Dave Navarro and Flea guest on ‘You Oughta Know’, accounting for the heavy guitars and above-average bass line on the track. Glen Ballard’s (credited in the liner notes as being Morissette’s ‘spiritual brother’) production is clean, and allows every one of Morissette’s yodels and yelps to come through clean in the mix. Though the album is lyrically flawed, the few stand-out tracks such as ‘You Oughta Know’ and ‘Head Over Feet’ coupled with the current vogue for disillusioned female singer/songwriters, will surely push Morissette towards mainstream popularity.