Jagged Little Pill
Jagged Little Pill is the third studio album by Canadian-American singer Alanis Morissette, released by Maverick on June 13, 1995. Recorded in Hollywood at Westlake with production by Glen Ballard, it was Morissette's first album to be released worldwide. It marks a significant stylistic departure from the dance-pop sound of her first two efforts, Alanis and Now Is the Time. She began work on the album after moving from her hometown Ottawa to Los Angeles, where she met Ballard. The pair had an instant connection and began co-writing and experimenting with sounds. The experimentation resulted in an alternative rock album that takes influence from post-grunge and pop rock, and features guitars, bass, keyboards, drum machines, and harmonica. The lyrics touch upon themes of aggression and unsuccessful relationships, while Ballard introduced a pop sensibility to Morissette's angst. The title of the album is taken from a line in the first verse of the song "You Learn".
Jagged Little Pill received positive reviews from critics, who praised its music and Morissette's lyrics and vocals. It received nine Grammy Award nominations, of which it won five: Album of the Year, making her the youngest artist to win the award at the time; Best Rock Album; Best Female Rock Vocal Performance ; Best Rock Song ; and Best Long Form Music Video. It was certified ten times platinum by the British Phonographic Industry, seventeen times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, and double diamond by Music Canada, making Morissette the first Canadian artist to achieve double diamond. With combined sales of over 33 million copies worldwide, Jagged Little Pill is one of the best-selling albums of all time. It has been included on several all-time lists, such as those of Apple Music, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Rolling Stone.
The album has been re-released twice: on October 30, 2015, in a two-disc deluxe edition and a four-disc collector's edition commemorating its 20th anniversary; and on June 26, 2020, in a 25th anniversary deluxe edition. An acoustic re-recording of the album was released on June 13, 2005, to mark its 10th anniversary. It inspired a musical stage production, which premiered at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts on May 5, 2018; it transferred to Broadway the following year, and was nominated for 15 Tony Awards, including Best Musical. A world tour celebrating the 25th anniversary of Jagged Little Pill began in early 2020 but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Background
In 1991, MCA Records Canada released Morissette's debut studio album Alanis, which went Platinum in Canada. Her second album Now Is the Time sold a little more than half the copies of her first album. With her two-album deal complete, Morissette was left without a recording contract. In 1993, Morissette's publisher Leeds Levy at MCA Music Publishing introduced her to manager Scott Welch. Welch told HitQuarters he was impressed by her "spectacular voice", her character and her lyrics. At the time she was still living with her parents in Ottawa. Together they decided it would be best for her career to move to Toronto and start writing with other people.After graduating from high school, Morissette made the move. Her publisher funded part of her development and when she met producer and songwriter Glen Ballard, he believed in her talent enough to let her use his studio.
Recording
Morissette co-wrote the album solely with Ballard, who also produced the album. The demo recording sessions started in 1994 at Ballard's home studio, and included only Morissette and Ballard as the producer, who recorded the songs as they were being written. Ballard provided the rough tracks, playing the guitars, keyboards, and programming drum machines, and Morissette played harmonica. The duo sought to write and record one song a day, in twelve- or sixteen-hour shifts, with minimal overdubbing later. All of Morissette's singing on the album respects that rule, each recorded in one or two takes. The tracks that were redone later in a professional studio used the original demo vocals.Ballard met Morissette in 1994 when his publishing company matched them up. According to Ballard, the connection was "instant", and within 30 minutes of meeting each other they had begun experimenting with different sounds in Ballard's home studio in San Fernando Valley, California. Ballard also declared to Rolling Stone that, "I just connected with her as a person, and, almost parenthetically, it was like 'Wow, you're 19?' She was so intelligent and ready to take a chance on doing something that might have no commercial application. Although there was some question about what she wanted to do musically, she knew what she didn't want to do, which was anything that wasn't authentic and from her heart." The first track the pair wrote was "The Bottom Line", which was not included on the album's initial release, but was included on the album's 2015 re-release. The song was written in one hour, immediately after they met.
The album's most successful single "Ironic" was the third track to be written for the album. In an interview with Christopher Walsh of Billboard, Ballard explained how he and Morissette met, and how "Ironic" was written. He commented: "I'm telling you, within 15 minutes we were at it — just writing. 'Ironic' was the third song we wrote. Oh God, we were just having fun. I thought 'I don't know what this is — what genre it is — who knows? It's just good."
The lead single, "You Oughta Know", has guitar by Dave Navarro and bass by Flea of Red Hot Chili Peppers. The song was written with a different instrumentation; the pair were then asked to re-write the music – something Navarro described as being "A lot like a remix... The structure of the song was in place but there were no guide tracks, we just had the vocal to work from. It was just a good time and we basically jammed until we found something we were both happy with. Alanis was happy too."
The first song to be shown to A&R and record company people was "Perfect", with a simple arrangement containing only Morissette's vocals and Ballard's acoustic guitar. In December 1994, the duo took the demos to a studio and began working on full band arrangements for 5 songs: "You Oughta Know", "Right Through You", "Forgiven", "Wake Up" and "Mary Jane". Los Angeles engineer Chris Fogel engineered the sessions. By January 1995, having been passed over by many labels, Ballard was considering an independent release before Morissette's lawyer Ken Hertz arranged a meeting with Guy Oseary, who worked at A&R for Maverick Records. Oseary said he got interested in working with Morissette right at the beginning of "Perfect", which he would later describe as "the first time I heard anyone tell stories that way and express themselves in such a manner", and within two days Morissette was signed with the label.
Content
Jagged Little Pill departed from Morissette's previous releases – Alanis and Now Is the Time – that predominantly featured dance-pop. To underscore this transformation and establish herself on the international stage, Morissette adopted her full name professionally, moving beyond her previous single-name moniker "Alanis". This deliberate change in both musical direction and personal branding signaled a new chapter in her career, setting the stage for her breakthrough international debut. All of the lyrics were written by Morissette. Morissette stated that during the process of making the album, she was in a bad mental condition after being robbed at gunpoint, suffering from angst and daily panic attacks, and tried to overcome her troubled feelings by expressing her emotions in the lyrics. She said that her goal was "doing work that is a completely truthful side of yourself", adding that "I say things in my songs that I wouldn't say in normal conversation or even the most serious talk."The album opens with "All I Really Want". It features harmonica, swirly guitars and canned drums, and is in a grunge-pop vein. The lyrics talk about "intellectual intercourse" and a mental connection with another angry, frustrated, frightened, uncomfortable soul. The lyrics of "You Oughta Know" have been described as exploring themes of "raw anger and frank portrayal of female sexuality".
"Hand in My Pocket" is a cataloging of contradictions set over fuzzy guitar and a '90s drum machine. It portrays a lighter side to Morissette, with lyrics that touch upon themes of her self-effacing and hopeful side. "Right Through You" is a grunge song with angry lyrics about sleazy record bosses who prey on female artists who they want to "Wine dine and sixty-nine" rather than actually supporting their musical careers.
"Forgiven" draws on Morissette's Catholic upbringing. "I was told," she recalled, "that if I wasn't a virgin when I was a teenager, I must be a real whore. I believed that if I had sex I would be damned in hell forever." "You Learn" is a mid-tempo self-help rock song, with Morissette giving out advice; "Ditch the fear, open your heart, speak your mind, and when the going gets tough, walk around the house naked." It also is the source of the album title Jagged Little Pill, which Morissette stated that reflected how "a lot of times when I’m immersed in something really difficult, I don’t realize that there’s a lesson in there somewhere and that it’s only in retrospect that I’ll realize why I went through it. So the lyric following it is ‘just swallow it down, it feels so good swimming in your stomach’... so there's some sort of a payoff, and it may not be right away." "Head over Feet" is a ballad that contains guitar and drum box backing, with plainspoken vocals. The lyrics talk about Morissette being a "handful", and that she's not the type to get emotional.
"Perfect" is thought to be about internalised negativity, the pressure to do well and approval. Meanwhile, "Mary Jane" is built over a ballad's tense and ringing electric guitar. It addresses themes about depression and anorexia as it sees Morissette trying to reassure a friend who's having a rough time. In 2010 a writer suggested it was an example of an anti-rhetorical argument about taking action. Though the name "Mary Jane" is another name for marijuana, the song seems not to be about the plant.
"Ironic" is a pop rock song, set in the time signature of common time, composed in a moderate tempo of eighty-two beats per minute. The song's use of situational irony led to some fascination with whether it is a correct application of the term ironic. According to the Oxford English Dictionary "irony" is "a figure of speech in which the intended meaning is the opposite of that expressed by the words used" making lyrics such as "It's like rain on your wedding day" not ironic.
The closing "Wake Up" takes the shape of a cry for help to an apathetic world.
The album cover, featuring photography by John Patrick Salisbury and art direction by Thomas Recchion, combines a picture of Morissette crouched atop a cliff in Malibu, California and another of her face with various shades of red, blue and green, and typewriter-style fonts.