Jagged Little Pill Acoustic



Forgive me now...

I join Kevin Smith in being one of the few males out there that will actually speak up and admit in public that he is an Alanis Morissette fan.

When Jagged Little Pill originally came out, I was working at a Kinko's and living in Memphis, TN. I had been out of a college a few years, recently married and my first child hadn't been born yet.

When the album hit the airwaves, I was really drawn to it. The music. The raw energy. The honesty of the album... no holds bar with lyrics revealing a very vulnerable young woman.

I should add, that I even went to her concert during the Jagged Little Pill tour. I'll never forget being the only male in the section I was seated in with most of the crowd being 15 year old girls. Yikes. Talking about feeling out of place. That is when it hit me that maybe I missed the memo from the He-Man Woman Hater's Club not to attend this event. Heh...

Even to this day, I don't think I could share all my secrets so openly like her. Apparently, at least one guy did Alanis wrong at some point and this album was her answer to get back at him. Makes most guys (even me) cringe. Still, this was one of the biggest albums of the 1990's. It was my generations version of Aretha's R.E.S.P.E.C.T.

The other night, I caught an interview on ABC television with Alanis as she talked about her career a decade later. In what I thought was an intriguing artistic opportunity (over just what could be perceived as a capitalistic marketing ploy to join Starbuck's and make a few dollars more), Alanis has revisited and re-recorded the entire classic album in a start-to-finish acoustic version that approaches the arrangements of these songs so much differently than a decade ago.

I bought the album today and really enjoyed listening to it as time has seemed to heal a bit.

I believe the album can only be bought from Starbuck's. So maybe it is a marketing ploy? ;)