Alanis Morissette- Jagged Little Pill

I had the same impression. I always felt that there was a degree of pretention. I guess we all have that, just that no one interviews me.

 

I thought Glen Ballard used vintage mics and equipment to record the album.

It's a great album with fantastic songs. Alanis became a great songwriter and an incrediblly unique vocalist on this album.

It's her Plastic Ono Band lp!

 

Yeah, I'm sure if someone talked to me when I was 21, I would've tried to put on some airs, as it were. Alanis probably came across like a college English major and took herself too seriously.

And she may STILL take herself too seriously, but she's made some good music!

 

+1

If this was the only album left to listen to in the world, I would welcome the silence.

Particularly considering she was Canada's pop mall teen queen, their version of Debbie Gibson and Tiffany; a fact that was expertly hidden from the media, and would have ruined her cred in a heartbeat.

 

"Expertly hidden"? No, not really - pretty much everybody knew about Alanis's "shocking past" when she became big with "JLP". And pretty much nobody cared - except for the folks who hated her and wanted to slam her for her "teen queen" years...

 

Just one example of an article from 1996 where her Canadian pop career was discussed:
http://www.nytimes.com/1996/02/28/g...een-age-life-than-live-it.html?pagewanted=all

Not exactly "expertly hidden"

 

Yes, I knew about her past all the way over here in the UK, when she had a piece in Record Collector for example it mentioned that.

 

I can appreciate it for what it is-expertly packaged/marketed post-grunge angry chick rock. But having never owned it yet heard every song enough times to be sick of it, it's hard for me to make much of an objective opinion about the music. PS I saw her in an infomercial the other day!

 

Muchmusic in Canada(our MTV) promised the label not to air the early videos for a couple years. She was on Madonna's label and they like interview both Alanis and Madonna among other "perks" given to the tv station.

 

When JLP first started to hit big in the US I can remember Tower in NYC selling imports of her first two Canadian cds, then the discs quickly disappeared from the shelves never to return..I was always suspicious that Maverick Records had them pulled as to not spoil their reinvention of Alanis...

 

Click on the thumbnails to get the full size scans.

 

I wonder if someone bought the masters as they have NEVER been reissued. Even if it were Canada only.

Alanis actually sung "Never too Hot"(title?) on the 2005 tour.

 

Just as I was shocked by people's admiration of JLP in 1995, I'm just as shocked by all the love it's getting here in 2010. By "shocked", I mean that I simply can't comprehend it. It's like we must have been listening to two different albums. I literally cannot understand how a person could "love" the album. I can only muster "appreciation" of it's craft at best, and that's simply trying to be rational about it. But assessments like "fantastic", "brilliant", "every song is great", etc, etc....? This is the very definition to me of what it means for people to like different kinds of music.

I don't like ELP, but I sure as heck get it that people do, and I know exactly why, and it makes sense to me. "You like tomato and I like tomahto" - but we both agree that it's the same basic thing: a red juicy fruit. Truly understanding differences in taste goes beyond that. Perhaps "You like chicken feet and I like tomato" is the difference as I understand it. How could anyone like chicken feet? Yet some do. Maybe a lot do. I don't get it, yet neither is somehow "better" than the other simply because I can't understand.

 

I agree with you. I never did understand what all the fuss was about this album for everyone to get so excited about.

If this was such a truly great album, people would be keeping it in their collections to listen to and treasure. So why are there millions of these things available on the used market selling for as little as .01?

 

Because Amazon Marketplace doesn't go into negative numbers.

 

Because they have it on their iPod's now and don't need the disc.

 

Many of the top selling CDs from the 1990s are VERY available on Amazon, SecondSpin, swapacd, etc etc. I can think of two big reasons why:

1. The cool curve... 15 year old music isn't old enough to be "retro" so it is just plain OUT. Albums that sold multi-platinum that are now OUT will fill up the used bins.

2. Format decline... The CD format is also OUT. Fans out there who still like their 15 year old music might not care to keep the CD, considered by some to be the disposable container of the music.

Also, keep in mind that .01 on Amazon Marketplace is actually $3 when shipping is added.

 

http://mixonline.com/mag/audio_glen_ballard_heart/

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/Mar03/articles/glennballard.asp

http://jam.canoe.ca/Music/Pop_Encyclopedia/M/Morissette_Alanis.html

 

I'm sort of amazed at the strong feelings both ways on this record. I don't LOVE it (partly because it was overplayed), but I sure don't HATE it.

I might, however, take somebody like Chief's critique more seriously, since he's somebody who enjoys music beyond the Classic Rock era, even *gasp* hip-hop.

As far as "keeping and treasuring", as others have pointed out, the value of physical product in the CD era (except for certain limited edition releases) is a whole other animal to vinyl in the Classic Rock era, now 35 years gone. A CD that sold a brazillion copies 15 years ago, now ripped to iPods, is a whole other thing.

 

I understand the point that you (and a couple of others) made about why this CD is in such huge supply at this point. However, I can clearly remember seeing multiple copies of this CD in used stores for $5 before the end of the 90s. So I don't think the supply is all related to the decline of the CD and the takeover of digital downloads. I think a lot of people that bought it got sick of it or decided it was not all that great after multiple listens and then dumped the disc.

 

My albums of the summer of 1995 were Raekwon's Only Built 4 Cuban Linx were Show & AG's Goodfellaz, AND Alanis Morrissette's JLP which, sadly, I probably heard more than the other two combined because it was part of my job.

In constant rotation was the Dave Matthews Band album from around then, Batman soundtrack, Clueless soundtrack, Joan Arden, Natalie Merchant, and some crap the Sam Goody corporation was trying to push because the parent company was trying to start a record company. Alanis was played more than all of those albums though.

 

Anything's possible. I have no empirical evidence either way. As an album, there's no way of knowing how people will perceive it the same length of time as now from the Classic Rock era.

The singles are pretty solid, so I suspect they'll have longevity, but again, no empirical data.

In the age of downloads, however, if somebody wants a copy now and in the future, it, and everything else will be pretty easy to come by.

 

Right. She was and is a GREAT vocalist. Who had a moment of youthful poetry worth capturing. Her lack of self-blame fit into a mold that was reminiscent of an angry '60s Bob Dylan. (And how we always wish for the next Dylan!) Glen heard it, helped it along- harmonica and all, and got the check.

Unlike Dylan though, there was no lyric genius underneath. Just one long hissy fit, brilliantly captured.

 

I already am jaded about a lot of music in large part of what commercial radio has overplayed over my lifetime. If I had had to listen to music as part of my job in one of the old chain stores, I would be even more jaded.

 

I'm "shocked" at how many "words" you "put" in quotes in "this" statement... :laughed: