Track Listing
1. All I Really Want
2. You Oughta Know
3. Perfect
4. Hand In My Pocket
5. Right Through You
6. Forgiven
7. You Learn
8. Head Over Feet
9. Mary Jane
10. Ironic
11. Not The Doctor
12. Wake Up
13. You Oughta Know (2)
14. Your House
Review
The right time to listen to this album is when you are in the range of 12 to 16 and this stuff actually speaks to you. Oh, and ideally 14 years ago when this was not the kind of thing every Avril Lavigne was doing. Fortunately, or unfortunately, I was at that stage when this came out, and therefore I kind of cherish this album... probably unfortunately.
The fact that this sounded quite new to me in 1995 does not mean it was, it just means I was ignorant. This is Tori Amos for the mass market, the lyrics are instantly understandable, the music is middle of the road rocky, and for teenagers, who are by nature mentally impaired, it works really well. And they lapped it up.
This is when this blog becomes complicated, when the nostalgia factor creeps in and taints what would otherwise be more objective opinions. But hey this is my blog. So I can say whatever the fuck I want, for what it is it is a great album. For mainstream angsty brat pop-rock there was never better, what Meredith Brooks? Crap. Ani di Franco? Not mainstream at all. Avril Lavigne? Well let's admit it, I'd hit it, but I'd have to gag her first. So yeah this album is actually quite good, the lyrics are easily understandable but with the exception of Ironic, they are never moronic. Still, a tad bit on the annoying side now with hindsight.
Track Highlights
1. Hand in My Pocket (her inflection is just so unintentionally funny)
2. Head Over Heels
3. You Oughta Know
4. You Learned
Final Grade
8/10
Trivia
From Wikipedia:
According to the RIAA, Jagged Little Pill is the best-selling debut album of all time by a female artist, with 16 million copies sold in the U.S. as of September 2008. As of 2005, it had sold thirty million copies worldwide. It was officially the best-selling album in the United States of the 1990s, with (according to Nielsen SoundScan) 13.5 million over-the-counter-sales by January 1, 2000. In Ireland, when Morissette's sixth album Under Rug Swept was released in 2002, Jagged Little Pill re-entered the album chart on February 21 at number seventy-two and reached nineteen on March 7. It took nine weeks for it to depart the chart again, on May 2.
Morissette was attacked for collaborating with producer and supposed image-maker Ballard, Her early dance-pop albums also proved a hindrance for her respectability, particularly in her native country. The album was nominated for six Grammy Awards in 1996, and Morissette won "Best Female Rock Vocal Performance", "Best Rock Song", "Best Rock Album", and "Album of the Year" (she lost "Best New Artist" and "Song of the Year"). Later that year, she embarked on an eighteen-month world tour in support of Jagged Little Pill, beginning in small clubs and ending in large venues. In 1997 she was nominated for two more Grammy Awards: "Record of the Year" and "Best Music Video, Short Form" for "Ironic". The video Jagged Little Pill, Live, which chronicled the bulk of the tour, won a 1998 Grammy Award for "Best Long Form Music Video". In 1998, Q magazine readers voted Jagged Little Pill the nineteenth greatest album of all time. In 2003, the album was ranked number 327 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
Hand in My Pocket:
1 comment:
"This is when this blog becomes complicated, when the nostalgia factor creeps in and taints what would otherwise be more objective opinions."
Love it - I've had this since you reached about 1983. Part of it makes the list less exciting, because you know the stuff, you encounter you rown prejudices but without the benefit of enough time to give a completely fresh perspective and the possibility of new discoveries decrease (although they will still be there).
Less than 200 albums to go! Whoo-hoo.
Post a Comment