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| It only took us 2 years to hang that photo up. |
1. She sparked my interest in Vinyl: while wandering an antique store in Hampden she found "Thriller" and Elvis's Self Titled album for $5.00 and suggested we start buying old records for a collection.
2. She decided her parents no longer needed their turntable so she confiscated it...with their permission, but still, awesome.
3. She bought our nicer JVC turntable at a church bazaar for $3.00.
4. Influenced numerous record purposes including, New Found Glory, Green Day, Diana Ross, and of course, today's subject record, Beth's pick: Alanis Morisette's 'Jagged Little Pill.' You have no idea what I had to go through to get this record. Well, I guess its not that bad, just lots of waiting. I gave this to Beth for her birthday a couple years ago and holy crap, what an ordeal. Not only are there only about 1000 copies of this album on vinyl, but most of them seem to be in Europe and Japan. After winning an Ebay auction for a copy I waited, and waited, and waited some more. The auction ended in April. Beth's birthday was in May. Then its June...then July. Finally, EIGHT months later, there it was. FINALLY, Beth got her birthday, or by this time, Christmas present.
Side one starts with "All I Really Want" a song that begins with a very good overdriven and sustained out guitar. The song has a smooth feel to it, slinking along casually throughout. The vocal approach is pretty interesting, the verse is pretty flat, but soon rises into the prechorus. The chorus is a great low and high vocal in combination. Interestly enough, the lyrics seem to deal with a guy who just won't commit. Fitting for a blog that starts with a celebration of three years of marriage, sing it Alanis! Track two is the big one. "You Oughta Know" is one of the angriest songs and one of the biggest musical mysteries since "You're So Vain." Who's it about? Well Alanis has never offically said, but its probably about that guy from 'Full House.' Yeah I know, not as exciting thinking its about that guy. Musically the song includes Dave Navarro and Flea, who just happened to be hanging around the studio and were impressed by Alanis's songs. They definitely influence the frantic and heavy nature of the song. "Perfect" starts out with a nice clean guitar and a very angelic vocal from Alanis. Musically the song is very sweet sounding. Organ, guitar, drums and bass is basically what you get here and it all works well. Why does it work so well? Probably Glen Ballard, the producer of the album. A lot of people think he's the only reason this album was so big, but whatever, Alanis can write some good tunes by herself too. Okay, true she never duplicated the success of this album again, but hey, 33 million copies is tough to duplicate unless you're the Beatles or Michael Jackson. "Hand In My Pocket" is another of the singles from the album and starts and stays with a fairly simple electronic drumbeat and bassline courtesy of a synth, I think. The seems to be an ode to the down times in life, when things don't really seem to be working out, but hey, everything is gonna be fine, fine, fine. That's a message we can all get behind! The repetitive musical nature of the song is broken by a good harmonica solo, and really doesn't do much else. But hey, it doesn't have to, the song works. "Right Through You" is the next entry on the album. Its a good song, and Beth, the guest listener on today's album, has decided to chime in on her Alanis experience. She pointed out that ALanis inspired her to buy pair of pleather pants and dance around her room with this album on...so..there's that. She would also like to mention that pleather or leather pants are extremely hot and you will sweat the second you put them on. So, with that said...this song is pretty boss, enjoy it. "Forgiven" is, in my opinion, one of the better tracks on the record. It features that wonderful 90's contrast, which Beth so easily pointed out as being a staple of the time. The vocals climb from the fairly quiet verse, to a very agitated prechorus to a raging chorus. Its a great build in this song which reaches its ultimate apex a few minutes into the song when everything quiets down for a moment with just Alanis's voice and a classical guitar. One last thrashing chorus and the song gets to its tornado of an outro that sends us on to side two.
"You Learn," starts off side two with a somewhat electronic sound. The guitar is still there, its just hidden under a layer of synthesizer. The lyrics are all about experiences that go wrong, but you walk away from and 'you learn.' Pretty straight forward. I like when the message is fairly apparent. Unless I'm totally missing it, but I don't think so this time. Next up is the best song on the album. Yes I said it; its not "You Oughta Know." There's just something about the song "Head Over Feet." It has such an easy going flow to it, the lyrics roll off the tongue, and you just go head over heals for it. See that? Do you really see what's happening here? You're under her spell now. Now she will strike, and destroy you. Well, maybe that wasn't the intent. But whatever the goal was, Alanis really knocks it out of the park with this one. There's even another harmonica solo, its got it all! "Mary Jane," is decent enough song, but it kind of gets lost in this album of singles. The song starts out slowly, but builds up with the vocals. Long drawn out vocals are done flawlessly by Alanis on this one. Its important to note that all of the vocal tracks on this album were recorded in one or two takes. Not bad considering how far this song wanders through the human vocal range. As the song rolls along, and I hate to say this, it kind of gets a little long winded. I know, I know, I don't want to say it because I do like this album, but its true. "Ironic" is yet another single from the album and one that lists a lot of happening to various people, most of which are not ironic. Winning the lottery and dying the next day is not ironic, it just really sucks. Oh well, ironic, bad luck, whatever. Alanis may not own a dictionary, but she can write a good tune. Beth claims this is because she was educated in Canada, and maybe she just doesn't know any better. I guess that explanation is as good as any I can throw out there. Next up is "Not the Doctor," which is a list of things Alanis really doesn't want. The verse is pretty uninteresting, but the chorus, oh the chorus is so good. Beth has commented again, that while Alanis doesn't really have a command of the meaning of a few select words, she does know her math, and proves it by stating that 1+1=2. Well that's just super, good for her! Yes, not a doctor, but maybe a mathematician. The album concludes with the song "Wake Up." The electronic drums are back, actually I don't think they ever left, wait, has this been a drum machine this whole time? No, there's real drums on there. However it seems Ballard and Alanis did use quite a few electronic beats, maybe to simplify the writing process. This song is another good one, not a single, but still good. It has a great bass line grounding it and some interesting, but understated guitar. The song concludes with about five seconds of "You Oughta Know" before abruptly cutting off. Yup, this is vinyl, and there are time constraints. The CD and cassette version include a slightly different version of "You Oughta Know" and a hidden track called "Your House," but we don't have time for that here.
Alanis sure did put some impressive tracks down on this record. Which is really a good thing, considering this is where she started her musical journey: Too Hot (1991) I apologize for anyone that clicked that without proper warning. I should state, this is basically a Canadian Paula Abdul kind of thing.
Strongest Song: Head Over Feet
Weakest Song: Not the Doctor
Song You Know: You Oughta Know, Ironic, You Learn, Head Over Feet.
Why You Might Hate It: You don't like any electronica in your alternative rock.
Buy It? You probably have it on CD, if you don't, you've accepted the fact you don't need it. Its ridiculously hard to find on vinyl, so I wouldn't advise looking.
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