Alanis Morissette

She could be an inspiration...

It was unlistenable 20 years ago. Worst scam perpetrated on the music-loving public since Madonna.

Yeah, I always hated her crap. Her voice is akin to torture. Her songs were shit.

I found it hilariously bad both then and now. When I watched "The Trip To Italy" recently, I couldn't believe those old geezers were complimenting it.

You know, I actually like sort of like her personally and I like the small role acting she's done.

But, I agree. Jagged Little Pill has NOT aged well at all, IMO At the time, I didn't love it, but I thought it was okay. I don't know. It's not really just the screeching vocals for me. Something else I can't put my finger on for why it sounds so dated and not good now. It sounds produced to within an inch of its life, if that makes any sense.

It's funny to look back and see what was so huge in years past.

I'm a huge Alanis fan and that album is my least favorite of her's. And she practically performs the entire thing on every damn tour.

Her last 2 albums, Havoc and Bright Lights & Flavors of Entanglement are her best work.

I also always have a special place in my heart for Supposed...

r6, nobody knows or has heard about those best albums of hers.

She has a condo in this building.

I still like that album - I haven't listened to it recently, but it had a good number of solidly-written, catchy songs that stood well on their own, compared to a lot of albums (then and now) which maybe have two or three "hits" and a lot of filler.

And if you hear "You Oughta Know" at a bar or in karaoke, it will automatically get people joining in and screeching at the top of their lungs: "And I'm HEEEEE-YYAAAAAHH... to REEEE-MIIINNDD you!"

I liked the song then. Still do.

They lyrics for "You Oughta Know" are pretty well-crafted:

"And every time you speak her name, Does she know how you told me you'd hold me Until you died, 'til you died But you're still alive."

Although yeah, some of the others (like "Ironic" and "Hand in My Pocket") are a bit nonsensical, even though the melodies are pretty catchy.

You Oughta Know is maybe about Dave Coulier from Full House

My fav Alanis song

Never liked her music

Loved it then and love it now. I can't listen to Mary Jane from that album without getting verklempt.

I liked it a lot in high school (early 00s), but it really is two steps down from Exile in Guyville (which is much more layered and complex).

R15, this version of Mary Jane destroys the album version.

I was a kid when that came out. God, I hated it. I could tolerate the Hand in my Pocket song, but everything else was just tripe.

True story:

I knew someone who slept with her after she was with Ryan Reynolds. According to Alanis, he's hung like a pinkie...

If he's hung like a pinkie why did she almost marry him?

I bought it when it came out and while I liked it at the time there was something weird about it. It didn't feel authentic. It felt false and not real.

And the lyrics annoyed me. They were like a depressed goth teenager's bad poetry. She tried to sound profound and intelligent and enlightened but it just didn't work.

I'm Canadian and I remember her when she was just Alanis, a pretty, perky pop starlet. That's still essentially what she still is no matter how much she tries to cover it up.

I haven't bothered with any of her subsequent albums.

But, yes, personally she seems really nice and down to earth.

R19, it makes sense then that Avril Lavigne followed in Alanis's footsteps. If Alanis was 2 steps down from Liz Phair, Avril was 4 steps down.

I like it and still listen to it. It resonates more with me as an adult than it did as a teen.

You oughta know that this why I dumped her.

Last week's "Glee" was about mashups with Morissette and Carole King. The King songs came off much better than Alanis's, in my opinion.

The thing is - of course the album's not "authentic"; it's very much a produced, manufactured, calculated shift from her former child starlet career. That shift has been repeated countless times by former child stars like Miley Cyrus who try to break away from their younger good-girl image into a more mature sound and demographic.

But, so what? It's not like anyone has any illusions about what type of music she made before, and her previous music and image were equally manufactured and inauthentic. And it does seem like at least a few songs came from her personal experiences and relationships.

In the end, I liked the album because the songs are catchy, the lyrics mostly passable, and her voice, screechy as it is, is unique and works for the hard / alternative rock style. Her voice is instantly recognizable and she does have some singing talent as evidenced by her live performances, which is more than can be said for many of her pop and rock contemporaries. Though I remember reading that when the album came out she was also attempting to learn guitar to better fit the live rock performance style, and those attempts just didn't go that well.

I thought the Glee episode (the only one I've watched in two years) really underscored how Carole King is a lasting talent -- and how much I don't miss that show.

Poor man's Rid of Me by PJ Harvey, then again most of artists in the 90s were diluted down versions of PJ Harvey.

She's not untalented. She's Canadian.

OP? This record didn't "define a generation." It was released at the tail end of the grunge era and was largely bought by menustruating women and people who don't really listen to music.

It was produced and largely written by Glenn Ballard - the mastermind behind Wilson Phillips? That strange quality it has? It's called manufactured pop.

It's also easy to forget that at the time of JLP's release, there were NO breakout female alternative rock musicians; the female rockers of the 80's had been replaced and the radio in the early 90's was dominated by men and male grunge bands.

Alanis and JLP's success opened the floodgates and goaded record companies to start searching for and promoting more female independent / alternative rockers - people like Sarah McLachlan and Paula Cole owe at least a portion of their success to Alanis for opening doors for them.

R30, i don't completely agree. If by breakout, you mean multi-platinum selling, then you are correct. But the 90s had more female rockers than the 80s did. Except for Alanis, Gwen Stefani, and Shirley Manson, they just didn't sell a whole lot. The ones who didn't sell a lot (Liz Phair, The Breeders, PJ Harvey, etc.)were much better.

I loved Jagged Little Pill and still do. What I don't care for are the follow up albums. I remember watching the video for Thank U where she's naked in the supermarket and thinking, "Is this what it's like for people who hate her?"

There's no way she could make Jagged Little Pill 2 because she's no longer in that state of mind mentally or financially. Plus, the music scene turned its attention to the Spice Girls by 1997.

Don't get me wrong. Both Jagged Little Pill and the Spice Girls debut were designed to be commercial hits, but Jagged Little Pill wasn't expected to be anything more than a Platinum Seller. In Jagged Little Pill Live, the tour starts out in small clubs, and then by the end massive Asian stadium crowds are singing along phonetically to songs they don't understand.

R31, I agree there were certainly other talented female rockers around in the 90's, before and after (e.g. Liz Phair had already released albums to critical acclaim by the time Jagged Little Pill came out), but yeah, none had come close to the chart success and visibility of JLP.

And it's not like JLP resulted in a ton of female rockers dominating the charts either - but it certainly upped their profile and made alternative and pop-friendly stations more willing to play their stuff. When a female rocker releases the top-selling album of the entire decade (even if people like R29 think only "menstruating women" bought it), record companies take notice and are more willing to take risks on other female rockers to try to recapture that success.

Surprised that there's no mention of how Madonna and manager Guy Oseary discovered her and Madonna signed her and molded her

[quote]My fav Alanis song

Thank you for your honesty.

R34 I got sidetracked trying to find the exact amount Madonna's Maverick label made from Alanis Morissette, but I couldn't find anything. I'm sure she got more than Alanis. Maverick is defunct now, but who cares? It more than fulfilled its purpose.

Do you know which musician really got rich from having a record label? Herb Alpert. The Tijuana Brass guy sold A&M records for hundreds of millions of dollars.

R33, I wonder what would have happened if Exile in Guyville sold as much as Jagged Little Pill did? If only Liz had Madonna molding her. Never mind, maybe it's for the best she didn't. And I don't think PJ Harvey would ever let Madonna mold her to her will.

R36, check this out:

" What was Madonna like as a boss (7)?

(Hesitantly) It was an interesting dynamic. It was kind of like back to the antiquated system of 80% record company and 20% artist. There was an inherent win-lose quality to that dynamic, so less a boss and more a psuedo-partnership, but it wasn't really a partnership because that's win-win or no deal, right?

I'm guessing she wasn't that hands-on?

We met a couple of times and she was actually quite lovely with me … early on."

Great album then, good album now with some moments of brilliance.

I find PJ Harvey pretty fake, as though she's only producing an affected "quirky", arty exterior, with no emotional content.

JLP was way more than a hit record. She sold 15 million copies in the US alone and a total of 33 million copies worldwide. That's a sensation.

I like the CD a lot. I'm not a woman.

Twats always will be herd animals. Most of them are incapable of independent thought and they have no taste in anything. So a fellow twat - shrill, unintelligent, pissy and miserable - like Morissette will capture their attention and support. Women, simply, are pretty much idiots.

The best way to judge popularity versus talent is to balance the female/male fan base. Any twat pushing lady shit and attracting only fellow cunts pretty much will be unlistenable to anyone with a brain and working ears, on the first listening or 20 years later.

It's quite simple, really.

Mooooooooo.

You Ought to Know is about Uncle Joey!

Absolutely love this song.

She kicked Mariah's ass at 96 Grammy's but MC is now a legend and Alanis a hasbeen

I have vivid images of her singing live during the 90s. with her non-stop Stevie Nicks-steal twirling and spinning, her long hair flying straight out like she's on a carnival ride.

She does have great hair!

I always preferred her pop stuff than that fake angst stuff. Glad she's ovah!

Talk about an album with legs. Nearly every track was released as a single and all successful. I think the only current artist to come close to getting that kind of mileage from a single album is Katy Perry.

That album came out right in the middle of my high school years and as annoyingly omnipresent as I thought it was at that time (and it was!), now when I hear one of the JPL singles it makes me sort of wistful and nostalgic.

IMO, Head Over Feet was/is the best song on that album.

Well said, OP.

Another fave of mine...

R39, have you heard Rid of Me or Is This a Desire, Harvey was plagued with health problems during the recording of those records, most of Rid of Me was about a nervous breakdown Harvey had after a break up.

She stunk. Most over-rated act of 1995. Glad she's over and done with.

I wish they would remaster Rid Of Me.

And FWIW, I really like Alanis' album "Under Rug Swept", which I think was the second album after JLP.

Hole released Live Through This in April 1994. Now that's a classic record which certainly provided a gateway for JLPs success.

I think she was upstaged by influenced artist like Fiona Apple, while I thought Tidal was half great When the Pawn or Extraordinary Machine were awesome, as two commercial post grunge pop albums.

I always found it fascinating how "You Oughta Know", despite being only one song on the album, completely defined Alanis's image and media representations of her as "bitter" and "angry", and provoked such strong (misogynistic) responses from people like R41. None of the other songs on the album like Ironic or Hand in My Pocket deal with gender issues or a female perspective, but "You Oughta Know" is really polarizing and leads people to call Alanis a "man-hating feminist" or similar, and to define her and her record-buying audience by their gender. Also note how many people are quick to discount her success or attribute it to her (male) producer, Glen Ballard, despite the fact she performed all the vocals and wrote all the lyrics herself.

What's also interesting is how Alanis's former career as a dance-pop starlet actually bolstered her new image. She wasn't some random indie rocker off the street; she was a successful squeaky-clean child star, and the fact that she was able to transform herself into a "man-hating" female rocker lent itself to a cultural narrative about gender and "good" women who turn into vengeful bitches if you reject them.

I even remember episodes of a children's TV show, "Boy Meets World", that parodied Alanis with a sweet girl character who starts writing dark and bitter songs about the boy she's dating when he rejects her - the widespread media narrative about Alanis was not of a singer cynically trying to revamp her image to sell more records, but about a good girl turned woman scorned expressing all her vindictive bitterness towards men.

So yeah, merits of the album aside, the cultural reaction to it and what it supposedly did and didn't say about women helped it on its way to becoming a phenomenon.

If we're going to go with barely listenable, female rage shrieking, I'm going to have to go with Kelis' "Caught Out There":

She was the very first artist contracted by Mavericks, the record label co-founded by Madonna. I guess that year Madonna made much more money out of Alanis' album than out of Erotica.

R44 I hate to break it too you but MC is also a has been too

Have you seen her last albums sales?

And what hall or auditorium will Mariah be performing in next?

She may be a legend in your eyes, but she's also a has been

Post JLP all the labels were looking for a "new Alanis", but aside from the incalculably talented Fiona Apple, none of the others took. Patti Rothberg, Holly McNarland, Tracy Bonham, Poe..all very skilled musicians and great lyricists, but it's like there was only room enough for one edgy young female at a time.

I hate most of Alanis' music, but I'll always love her for this.

R58 true, but Madonna made the most money of all off of sales from her Sex book released around the same time

People may have thought that the book was in bad taste but it sold like crazy at $50 a pop!

I had the opportunity to go to a promotional event where Alanis was interviewed and performed a few songs while playing guitar.

She managed to come across as incredibly down to earth while also being straightforward about really enjoying success, money, and a privileged lifestyle.

Her voice was amazing. I realized it was rare to be able to hear such an amazing vocal performance that wasn't layered in a studio, autotuned, or backed up by a huge band and background singers. Just her voice and a guitar. Really phenomenal.

R51, re: the Rid of Me nervous breakdown---

PJ Harvey seems super sensitive to the men in her life. I can't imagine having a nervous breakdown from a breakup.

Poe hasn't been able to release music sine Haunted because of her label, it has been reporter as one of the most disastrous record contracts ever.

I think Alanis was heavily influenced by Tori, (they toured together in 99) while Tori's first 4 albums are untouchable, it's strange that Tori's later albums came off as second rate soft versions of JLP.

I can't stand her voice, she doesn't even sing, she yodels out her lyrics.

She was always a good sport on The Howard Stern Show. I remember her band members saying "well, he was funny...I guess", after Howard demanded their opinion of Ryan Reynolds.

Her music and videos are so inspirational!

Rid of Me actually doesn't need remastering--in fact, not many 90s albums do. 90s cds typically have the best productions. They don't have the tiny sound of 80s cds or the compressed sound of 00s ones. You just need to listen to Rid of Me with bass boost and with the volume cranked up.

R59 last week, Mariah announced that she will be taking up residency at Caesar's Palace in Vegas after Celine Dion departs this year.

[quote]She does have great hair!

I was so bummed when she cut it all off in 2004 into that horrid pixie cut that did not suit her face. I was shocked that she did that 'cause just a year earlier she did an interview with Ellen (just before Ellen started her talk show) and Ellen wanted to snip just an inch off it and she almost had a heart attack. Then a year later, she chopped it all off. Thankfully she grew it back.

I found it amusing that Alanis is named after her father Alan, but she has a twin brother named Wade. I wonder why they didn't name him Alan instead?

I liked her better when she looked like Blossom.

R71 - I remember that. Thankfully she grew it back!

R70 which OFFICIALLY means that she's a has been

I think they were stupid to off her a residency, I mean the other Vegas residency acts have all had big tours like Cher, Celine and even talentless Britney, but Mariah has always been a flop when it comes to tours, her box office grosses are TERRIBLE

R39, emotion as in the music moves you, not "emotion" as in over-dramatised statement that screams out how deep and meaningful and supposedly important it is but in reality has no real soul content, just an over-affected surface covering.

PJ Harvey is all dramatised surface with little content. Her music is clinical, just for effect.

I don't like a lot of her stuff but what I like I LOVE. Those are: Maryjane, 21 Things I Want in a Lover, That Particular Time, and the brilliant, and unlike anything else she's done, Uninvited.

Since someone else brought up Fiona; Tidal is the best debut album ever. That included male, female, or group. It's too bad most of Fiona's screws are loose and she couldn't follow through.

Oh yes R77, I had totally forgotten Uninvited. I'm not sure I ever heard the album or even the radio version but Freemasons did a Dance Remix of it and it was one of the best things I heard on the club throughout 2008-2009.

I remember a friend asking me how was my roll and I remember having told him that something would be missing until they would put that fucking track.

Then it was pure bliss.

on the club SCENE (obviously).

Some ill-intended doctors say that's what happens after too many rolls...

It's a wonderful album, and it sparked a whole movement of angsty rocker chicks (Joan Osborne, Fiona Apple, Amanda Marshall, Meredith Brooks, etc.).

I loved the Janet-esque Canadian pop star version of Alanis too. "An Emotion Away" is a great track.

Four pages of whiny hipster dipshits going for a target that was low hanging fruit YEARS ago. Childgays, kill yourselves.

Meredith Brooks, I remember that bitch.

Only on DL would someone call PJ Harvey fake. That's just embarrassing.

This is when she was at her best:

Wow R85 Alanis was a pretty good dancer. As good as Janet. Maybe a little better because she didn't have all that fat to holding her back.

80s-90s CanCon pop is so pathetic. Situation critical.

I like deceased schizophrenic Wesley Willis' song "Alanis Morissette". I sometimes sing it when I'm driving

Plastic is her best song

With her perm, she really reminds me of Linda Blair

I forgot my favorite. You Owe Me Nothing in Return. It seems so corny now but when it was out it described perfectly what I was going through with my first serious relationship. I knew in his heart it was over, or going to be soon, but I'd love him until the end with no strings and when it was completely over there would be no bitterness. I'd just take every second left that I could. To be a kid again.

I'll give you countless amounts of outright acceptance if you want it I will give you encouragement to choose the path that you want if you need it You can speak of anger and doubts your fears and freak outs and I'll hold it You can share your so-called shame filled accounts of times in your life and I won't judge it (and there are no strings attached to it)

You owe me nothing for giving the love that I give You owe me nothing for caring the way that I have I give you thanks for receiving it's my privilege And you owe me nothing in return

You can ask for space for yourself and only yourself and I'll grant it You can ask for freedom as well or time to travel and you'll have it You can ask to live by yourself or love someone else and I'll support it You can ask for anything you want anything at all and I'll understand it (and there are no strings attached to it)

You owe me nothing for giving the love that I give You owe me nothing for caring the way that I have I give you thanks for receiving it's my privilege And you owe me nothing in return

I bet you're wondering when the next payback shoe will eventually drop I bet you're wondering when my conditional police will force you to cough up I bet you wonder how far you have now danced you way back into debt This is the only kind of love as I understand it that there really is You can express your deepest of truths even if it means I'll lose you and I'll hear it You can fall into the abyss on your way to your bliss I'll empathize with You can say that you have to skip town to chase your passion and I'll hear it You can even hit rock bottom have a mid-life crisis and I'll hold it (and there are no strings attached)

You owe me nothing for giving the love that I give You owe me nothing for caring the way that I have I give you thanks for receiving it's my privilege And you owe me nothing in return

[quote]Wow [R85] Alanis was a pretty good dancer. As good as Janet. Maybe a little better

Not even close, you stupid hating bitch. But Alanis did cover Janet's "Black Cat" back in the day, and she also went to see Janet in concert back then and molded her own show off of Janet's high-energy dance stuff.

Janbot justice

Wow r87, that's a real blast from the past. We used to sing that in high school to make fun of all the jocks and honor society kids who *loved* JLP.

Please, Robin Sparkles out Alanis'd Alanis - she knew what it was all aboot:

Robin Sparkles was based on Alanis.

I can't stand her way of singing. Like someone else said, it sounds like she's yodeling.

Bjork and PJ doing I Can't Get No Satisfaction. They have compatible voices. I wonder how this collaboration came about.

Apparently...

[quote]They didn't know they were performing together until a couple hrs. before the show. Organizers wanted to pair Bjork up with Meatloaf. She said she's rather do something with Polly.

Well at least she was never lame enough to be on Degrassi...Drake.

Superficial, or artificial, isn't the same as fake, r84. Of course her music isn't fake - it's all about being deeply sincere and incredibly artistic. Once the "message" has overloaded everything, the musical content is shallow.

I know, it's just a personal opinion. It's entirely legitimate not to like the music of PJ Harvey. It's not obligatory to think she's great.

R97, it's not a collaboration. They were on a TV awards show together. The producers probably thought of it - put the "quirky" girls together.

What about her later work r100 , like Stories, where many fans critized her for not being visceral enough and being too polished, while I was a little disappointed by Stories I have grown to love it, I too thought it was polished, but I think now in see it as being beautifuly melodic and has a shimmering iridescent city night sound.

R102, I think Stories is one of her two classics, the other one being Rid of Me.

I was in college when Jagged Little Pill came out and that album was definitely a "momemt" with my generation. EVERYBODY had that cd, even the straight guys.

It didn't age all that well, and looking back it wasn't even that great back in the day. However, it really was THE album to buy in 95-96. The album had some catchy songs. You Oughta Know was an anthem for scorned lovers and tapped into that raw anger that you feel in those situations, which made it the runaway hit it was and brought attention to the album. But the 90s were a low point for music. There just wasn't that much good music out there at the time.

R105, I like 90s music but the music that was best in the early 90s was even better in the 80s. 80s alternative dominates 90s alternative, Chicago house beats techno, etc.

The first times I heard "Ironic" I thought that was Olivia Newton-John big comeback. It may have been the tone of her voice (both have a bit of shrillness), the vocal range, the way she was using it, the vocal arrangement or even the kind of music (John Farrar could have written Ironic).

Or maybe that was just wishful thinking (I loved ONJ in the early 80s)

R81 LMAO at that "Escapade" rip-off!

Actually, I should say it's a sad mix of "Escapade" and "Love Will Never Do (Without You)".

I agree about Stories, I didn't like it at first at all but now it is the album I listen to the most.

What does everyone think of 'Unsent' off of the next album in 1998-released as a single 1999? It got a fair amount of air/video play in Canada, but I'm not sure how much elsewhere. It's a strange meandering song with no verse-chorus structure, just a sort of stream of consciousness lyrics of written 'letters' to 5 different men of her past, each sort of representing a different archetype(do you have somebody that represents all 5 'types' in your past?) The lyrics take some men to task, but also deeply appreciate others, and do not fully let herself off the hook either. It's a nice human range of emotions that neither man-bashes, nor man-worships...

R110, at the time, some music journalists like pitchfork criticized Stories very heavily. I thought at the time that this is a cd that would sound better with time and I think I've been proven right. It sounds better to me than most of her other albums, except for Rid of Me.

I think Under Rug Swept is her best album, songs were much less psychoanalytical and less hysterical, songs like You Owe Me Nothing in Return, 21 Things in a Lover and That Particular Time seemed much more acutely personal, less grandiose and more honest.

And I'm delighted to hear so many people came round to Stories, my brother played You Said Something at his wedding, it is probably her best song. Good Fortune, A Placed Called Home, This Mess We're In in fact every song on that album is brilliant.

JLP was a great album, but it's one of those albums that was played relentlessly for two years on the radio that even after 20 years, it's still too soon to enjoy any of those songs again.

I much prefer Tracy Bonham for the circa 90s angry white woman schtick....

Ironic