Jagged Little Pill

Oooooh. Now this is an interesting one. 15 when this came out and it was EVERYWHERE. And by everywhere, I mean ABSOLUTELY EVERYWHERE, I'm pretty certain some radio stations had an Alanis track every 3rd song. And to be fair, it was very different and tapped into that grungey era.

Listening back, hell yeah there's some nostalgia there, but I actually liked it more than I thought I might. That vocal is very distinctive and the writing is excellent. It's a little bit samey, but not hearing it played every. single. day. has certainly helped.

Oh hell yes, Alanis goes hard. She sounds so raw, a hoarseness that I never noticed before. I love it. Easy 5*

Highlights: ironic, hand in my pocket, you oughta know, all i really want, right through you, forgiven (chills during the chorus), you learn, head over feet

Ok, I think I just don't like the soft fillers (mary jane, perfect, wake up), but otherwise enjoyed the whole thing.

Don't always love her voice, and some of the non-singles don't stack up as well against the big hits, but there's some undeniably excellent stuff here.

3.5/5

Some bangers, but the songs are so stuck in the 90's. Her voice is not great, although it is recognizable...

The voice gets annoying over time.

Man, I remember when this album came out. Alanis was everywhere. Knowing this album was like the way for people to know that you were cool back in my 6th grade days. It's still a great album, but as others have said it does sound a little dated 30 years later. But so do a lot of other albums on this list.
I remember the first time 12 year old me heard You Oughta Know, "man this lady is pissed off and she's a fucking badass!" I still love that song. Really, most songs on this album are great. I enjoyed listening to again, it had probably been like 25 years at least since I heard the whole thing all the way through.
This record is probably one of the best mainstream albums of the 90s and I don't think many would argue. Perhaps not a solid 5/5 in my book but damn close enough.

This was never really my taste, but I was in high school when it came out, so I remember how huge and influential it was. My most distinctive memory of this album is being on a road trip to Mexico in 1995. We were with family friends, riding with the two older daughters (maybe 17 years old) of my parent's friends, while the adults were in a different car. The girls were driving/riding in the front, and my buddy in I were in the back of their Jeep. My buddy and I didn't have drivers licenses yet. The girls brought just this CD, so we pretty much sat in the back and listened to it on repeat for about 3 hours each way, with them belting it out, and me not fully understanding the lyrics yet.

Such a 90's sound! Love her voice and the songs. It made me feel like I was born then, even though I was born in 2003. Great record.

Really enjoyable, fun album! I'd listen again merrily. :)

All the late 90s popular movies sound like this and thats nice but didnt love this album as much as everyone seems to and apple music

Of course that’s a 5.

It was gonna be a 5 just because it had You Oughta Know and Ironic on it, but my goodness, some of those other tracks are fabulous; Forgiven and Perfect, in particular, are so fucking tuned into my sensibilities out of 90s rock, and there’s not a single bad track on here.

Her vocals are off the charts for most of this album; just super strong control for someone constantly singing at such a high pitch, but when she goes deeper… man. Those moments are standout. The guitar riffs and the production on here is fucking crazy good; I don’t know if I’ve paid that much attention to the sound design on the bigger hits with headphones in before, but I clearly underestimated just how much work was poured into the instrumentals.

Yes, it’s pretty clearly dated to 1995, especially with how much You Learn feels like it could’ve been the theme song to a 90s teen drama, but I kinda don’t care – this was just a spectacular listen for me, and I can’t believe I never listened to the whole thing until today. Fantastic stuff here, easy 5.

As one of the most ubiquitous albums of the 90s I know all the words to half these songs and have a good time belting them out at first jokingly then it gets serious, and it's like damn, you really do ought to know. The bass sound is so whoompy. It rules. It's like RAAAIIIIIAAAAIIINNNM....

didn’t realize how many of these songs i’ve heard in passing. good album overall.

This album is filled with staggeringly good lyrics. They’re so smart, and heartbreaking, and relatable, and honest, and thoughtful, and wise - I cannot even believe they were written by a 19-year-old.

I'm a child of the 90s, so of course I've heard the big radio releases, but unlike Alanis I was nowhere near as mature or emotionally intelligent to really pick up on the words. It's simultaneously a VERY 90s time capsule album, and a timeless album.

You know, it’s almost a shame that You Oughta Know is the song she’s most well known for. I remember the talk always being how she was like kind of a psycho ex-girlfriend. When I hear it now I just hear pain and catharsis and an attempt to come to grips with the most intense emotional pain of one’s life. Which is what every breakup feels like at 19! But then the rest of the songs on the album show the growth, and self awareness, and expectations for future relationships, the healing process that shows how she came out the other side of that pain. There’s an understanding that pain is a part of life and if you embrace it, and learn from it, that it can be positive. it’s almost like You Oughta Know is the first half of the movie and most people don’t know how the movie ends.

There are a couple songs that I don't think are as strong as others. I'd probably give it 4.5 if I could. Normally, for a 5 star review, I can't pick out any weak songs, but the lyrics on this album, I think, are so overwhelmingly great that I can forgive a couple songs that I, personally, don't connect to.

The vocals, the lyrics, the angst, the harmonica. Everything is here. Never realized how many of these songs I already knew and liked. Love it.

Loved it

This album was commercially successful to a fault, leading to me today finding this extremely obnoxious and repetitive. Would I have thought that were these my first time hesring half of these songs? Maybe not, as I suppose her voice is interesting enough, and it's predictable but standable 90s rock, which I generally don't have a problem with. However, we don't live in that world, and instead all of these songs bleed the exact same "girl power" energy, leading to absolutely no difference between each one, and at nearly an hour long, with even a duplicate song closing, it's at nauseum. I have no problem with empowering albums, and if this is the one for you, that's awesome, but this comes off like the most commercial form of it. A "girl's world" t-shirt. An Avengers Endgame shot. It's just so bland, and feels like something to strike just the right chord, appeal to everyone, and make a bajillion dollars. I guess that's the best thing you can do in this world, is stick it to the man and prove these kinds of songs can be big hits, but when four or so of them still play on the alt-rock radio into the 2020s, it's hard not to get sick of it.

The deep cuts aren't much better, some of them are even worse, I'd say, but I guess at least they were new to me, and I'll probably never think about them again. It's not the worst thing I've heard, but I was some form of exhausted by the end. Disappointed that the deep cuts didn't prove my prior notions wrong, but at least I don't have to be one of those people obnoxiously saying "the deep cuts are better!" every time one of these songs come on. That may be more annoying than the album itself, I'm sure.

There's some good songs on here. I like how raw some of these are, with some really biting lyrics. It's mostly 'quite good' throughout the rest of it.

I have never thought about listening to this album but I am glad i did.

There were plenty of songs I have not heard and really enjoyed like Mary Jane, All I really want and right through you. No filler.

This sounds like the 90s.

Favourite song: All the classics we already know and Mary Jane.
Least favourite song: All good tunes!
Album artwork: Really recognisable cover

Head Over Feet is a nice song. Forgiven is a good new treatment of an old theme. She shows off some vocal chops on Mary Jane that were a surprise. Ironic is a way better song than I remember. Maybe it’s the nostalgia sauce that makes it more delicious than it used to be.