Alright, time to deal with some demons from my past. Alanis Morissette is certainly no stranger to dealing with personal demons, but unfortunately for her, in this case, she is the personal demon for me to deal with. It's been 10 years now since she unleashed the visceral, feminist-empowering, landmark rock album Jagged Little Pill, and perhaps somewhat unfairly, she became the bane of boyfriends and ex-boyfriends worldwide, who heard a few songs that proverbially put their testicles in a tight vice grip, and decided that the whiney woman needed to SHUT UP NOW. I certainly had that threatened feeling each time I attempted to swallow the Jagged Little Pill, despite my best attempts to appease an ex-girlfriend by digesting and understanding Alanis' attitude. And you know what, even though I had friends who asserted that "every single one of her songs is about getting screwed over by men", that's really only true of a handful of these songs. It was the shrill, off-key, frequently p!ssed-off tone of Alanis's vocals that made that misconception carry over to the rest of the songs, causing me to miss the fact that there was some solid songwriting hidden within the album. I knew it was my loss, but I couldn't bring myself to sit through an entire album of her snarling, even if it was about something I agreed with.

In the time that has elapsed since this album went multi-mega-giga-uber-hella-platinum, I've actually become a bit of an Alanis fan, finding the more experimental (if still somewhat shrill) mish-mash of Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie and the relatively more pop-friendly tones of Under Rug Swept and So-Called Chaos to be to my liking. Alanis has fallen off a bit in terms of popularity and critical acclaim since then, but quite frankly I think she's matured and she's writing better songs these days, at least on average. I couldn't quite see the reasoning behind completely re-recording the songs from Jagged Little Pill in an acoustic format and re-releasing the album, figuring it to be a marketing gimmick that I thought Alanis should be above by now. But then I caught a performance of the once-overlooked song "Perfect" on a late night show, and I was floored. Had it always had those lyrics and that melody? What else was I missing here? After that, I just had to check out Jagged Little Pill Acoustic. And I know I'm going to be in the minority here, but you know what, I think this one actually surpasses the original, if only slightly.

The most important factor in me deciding this, of course, was the vocals. Alanis has always had an odd voice that takes some getting used to, but when used properly, her instrument can be downright lovely. I guess it made sense to snarl and squawk on some of the more angry songs - part of JLP's initial appeal for most folks was its lack of self-censorship. But it didn't need to be that way on every single song, and that's why the album grew tedious for me. The acoustic format, while making some of the popular singles from the original album sound a bit clunky by comparison, works wonders for the less-noticed ballads from that project. Sure, we all remember "You Oughta Know" and "Ironic" and "Head Over Feet" and "Hand in My Pocket"... alright, so at least half of the album ended up being a hit at one point or another. But how many of us really got acquainted with the songs in between? Pretty much all of those are a lot more likeable this time around, giving her often-brilliant turns of phrase a fair chance at being noticed. And as much as harsh electric guitars and acidic programmed beats became a fashion statement for chick rockers in the mid-to-late-90's, it's actually quite nice to hear the harsh elements stripped away, allowing the rich melodies of several of these songs to shine through.

Of course, there's been much debate over whether we really need a stripped down, reflective take on some of these songs, which are supposed to be about pure, unbridled anger or frustration. Fair enough. I like the analogy that it's like taking a look back at a time capsule, remembering where you were, and seeing those events with more of a clear head. The resulting remakes might not make as much sense in a vacuum, but I think they're quite indicative of who Alanis is now, as a person. The feelings she had at the time were genuine, but she's grown considerably. That explains a good deal of my newfound fondness for these songs, even if on a musical level, these versions are rather hit-and-miss.

All I Really Want
Why am I so petrified of silence?
Here, can you handle this ... ?
Did you think about your bills, your ex, your deadlines
Or when you think you're gonna die?
Or did you long for the next distraction?
Mirroring the stroke of electric guitar and the burst of harmonica that started off the original album, we get a strong, rich acoustic guitar pattern along with some Eastern-styled strings leading the way this time around. Since the harsh electric elements and acidic programmed rhythms aren't there, we're immediately clued in that this is a kinder, gentler Alanis, particularly when she maintains her lower vocal register during a chorus previously populated with an army of Alanises (Alani?) hell-bent on making us face our worst fears. This shifts the tone of the song from "shoving a guy's problems in his face" to more of a cool-headed, "tough love" type of attitude, since the lyrics are mostly the same. What it lacks in visceral power, it easily makes up in fragile beauty - Alanis sounded like hell on the original version, making it difficult to listen to, but here, her voice is quite lovely, fitting in more with the Alanis I've come to love over the years. She finally jumps up an octave for the last chorus, making the various wants and needs she's expressed sound more urgent, and it's nice to finally hear her sing this song without being so deliberately off-key.

You Oughta Know
Cause the love that you gave that we made wasn't able
To make it enough for you to be open wide, no
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...
Undoubtedly, the original album's first big hit is now the biggest shocker on the acoustic version - though it may not come as too big of a surprise to those who own Alanis' Unplugged album. Like it or not, it seems that everyone knows this vicious, man-bashing anthem, and while it would be interesting to hear that same fury unleashed over a fast-paced acoustic framework, Alanis has chosen to slow down the tempo a bit to give "You Oughta Know" a more reflective tone. Over the steady thumping of drums and careful picking of guitar chords, she softly sings the words of her unwritten letter to the jerk who unceremoniously dumped her, as if she's come across it after it had been buried in a time capsule for ten years, and she's amused at how angry she once was. This effect is kind of a double-edged sword - on the one hand, I don't wince as much at some of her cutting remarks (even if "Are you thinking of me when you f*ck her?" still smacks the eardrums as hard as it always did), but on the other hand, it kind of takes the wind out of the old sails. I kind of like to hear acoustic versions of songs done with the same rocking fury as the originals, not totally mellowed out like this, so I kind of lose interest once she gets to the chorus, which is a bit plodding where it was once powerful and catchy. I may not be the best person to judge this version of this song because I could never get to a point of fully liking the original... but I certainly can't see it surpassing the original in the minds of most fans.

Perfect
I'll live through you, I'll make you what I never was
If you're the best, then maybe so am I, compared to him, compared to her
I'm doing this for your own damn good, you'll make up for what I blew
What's the problem...why are you crying?
Here's the song that really made me stand up and take notice of what I had missed the first time around. The original take on this role-playing session recounting parental abuse struck me as a bit rushed and raw. Seeing as it was the demo take that she and producer Glen Ballard decided to go ahead and keep, that made sense. But Alanis was off-key and some of the words were too jumbled to really make an impact, and in this new setting, everything seems sharper and more poised to really hit those crappy overachiever parents where it hurts. As Alanis softly croons her harsh commands to an unappreciated child, it's hard not to get emotional - and I didn't even have parents like that. It's a mellow song, for the most part, which makes it all the more creepy, and it finally starts to boil over as she delves into the parents' reasoning in the bridge, explaining that all of their own mistakes are now being placed on this child, with the expectation that he/she will somehow redeem them by being perfect. That makes the tense ending of the song even more powerful: "We'll love you... just the way you are... if you're perfect". It's a superb piece of songwriting, finally given the studio recording that it deserved.

Hand in My Pocket
I feel drunk but I'm sober
I'm young and I'm underpaid
I'm tired but I'm working, yeah
I care but I'm restless
I'm here but I'm really gone
I'm wrong and I'm sorry, baby...
Another big hit from the original album gets a strange treatment here - "Hand in My Pocket" always struck me as more of a groove-oriented song, an interesting bit of paradoxical poetry exploring the many complexities of who Alanis is on the inside. Somehow, I think that she prettied it up a bit too much - another reviewer compared this new, lighter take as being similar to something Norah Jones would do, and I'd say that's rather apt (references to cigarettes and chickensh*t notwithstanding). The slight recasting of melody is interesting, but it kind of forces a sense of irony on the song that doesn't really work. And the intrusion of a few bell-like keyboard sounds during the chorus is an embarassing misstep. The result is a failed experiment that really sucks the life out of an initially amusing song.

Right Through You
Your shake is like a fish
You pat me on the head
You took me out to wine, dine, sixty-nine me
But didn't hear a damn word I said...
Not sure what's up with the extended string intro on this one - it doesn't seem connected in any way to the song, other than the fact that the strings stick around to add some oomph to the chorus. This is, of course, another song about Alanis getting screwed over by a guy, though I find this one more amusing than "You Oughta Know" because it discusses how the music industry is more interested in her being a sex symbol than an actual artist. She makes some pretty strong accusations against the slimy record executive who spent all of their time together checking out her rear end. The strings develop into a bit of a semi-fury, making up for the lack of electric guitars in some way, but once again, the gentler take doesn't completely work for the song (and neither does the lack of an abrupt ending). I have to chuckle at the line, "Now that I'm Miss Thing, now that I'm a zillionaire, you scan the credits for your name and wonder why it's not there" - it was perhaps a bit presumptuous on an album made before she was a bona fide star, but now, I think she's been vindicated just as that line predicted, so she can certainly revisit it with a wink and a nudge that say, "See? I told ya so."

Forgiven
My brothers they never went blind for what they did
But I may as well have
In the name of the Father, the Skeptic and the Son
I had one more stupid question...
I was pretty offended when I first heard this song 10 years ago, but then, I was pretty uptight as a young person. Alanis has some rather harsh things to say here regarding her time spent in Catholic school, and it's a bit too easy to take that as an attack on organized religion altogether. Sometimes the worst thing one can do is judge a religion by its most strict organizations, who make up their own additional rules to try to keep people in line. But all the same, I can understand Alanis being confused about that, so I now take this song as an attack on legalism among religious people, and not as a Christian-bashing (or specifically Catholic-bashing) song. It's got a hell of a captivating melody as she retells some of the incidents that she didn't understand, but blindly went along with at the time because she didn't know any better (the most ingenious twist being her mention of confessing her darkest deeds to an envious priest). Her voice absolutely shimmers in the haunting chorus, with the tense shifting back and forth between the chords D and C sharp, eventually leading to a strong melodic payoff when she cries, "We had to believe in something, so we did." The rich classical guitar picking also adds a slight amount of Latin flair as the song builds to its climax. I miss the chorus of voices echoing "Hallelujah" behind her in the second verse, but I love how a lone "Hallelujah" ends up capping off this version of the song. It's a highly emotional tune that serves as a timely warning to religious folks regarding why their legalistic actions can often cause others to reject a religion that is supposed to be based on love and grace.

You Learn
I recommend biting off more then you can chew to anyone
I certainly do
I recommend sticking your foot in your mouth at any time
Feel free...
I think this song was originally the turning point for me - the moment where I set aside my initial hatred of Alanis for a second and admitted, "You know what, this girl has some wisdom after all". I think it was the line "I recommend walking around naked in your living room" that clinched it - taken metaphorically, that was what she was trying to do - be honest about her mistakes and hope they could serve as an object lesson of sorts. This song might seem to endorse some rather reckless behavior, but I always figured the point was that you can't be so afraid to mess up that you never try anything - it's through those mistakes that you learn about life. I do miss the bumping beat that originally drove this song, and as much as Alanis' caterwauling used to p!ss me off, I have to say that I also miss the visceral "Hey-yah!"s that used to punctuate the bridge. This version forces us to reflect on the lyrics a bit more, but I kind of think that she might have actually delivered a better performance the first time around - this is possibly the only time that I'll admit to that.

Head Over Feet
You are the bearer of unconditional things
You held your breath and the door for me
Thanks for your patience...
I never had any reservations about the original version of this song - I always loved it. Even at that early stage where she had unfairly garnered the reputation of being a man-eater, I loved hearing a song that admitted she was falling in love in spite of her own guardedness. It was one of the more intelligently written love songs of its day, and unfortunately, it doesn't fare well at all in the remake. The harmonica is still there, and that's always fun, but once again, the rhythm's been dulled, and the music just doesn't make an effort to stand out, so the song loses its power while not gaining much of anything melodically. The vocal ad-lib as the song winds down was pretty the first time around, but here, she inserts a lot of uncomfortable "h" sounds, as if she's either trying to sing a Jewish liturgy or spit out a big ball of mucus. It's extremely awkward and it really drags down the song.

Mary Jane
It's a long way down on this roller coaster
The last chance streetcar went off the track
And you're on it...
So, how many people assumed that the original version of this song was about marijuana? Was it just me? Oh well. Anyway, here's another one that I never paid much attention to the first time around, other than to note the tricky rhythm that took me until the chorus to get the hang of it. In its original incarnation, it was beautifully sad, and thankfully, it hasn't lost any of its power in the translation. (It's interesting to note that she starts this track, as well as few others, off with piano, as if to make it more apparent that the songs which originally started off with acoustic guitar are now being presented in a different format.) It's much easier to catch the rhythm right away this time, and thus easier to sing along to the sad verses about a lonely girl who seems to be trying to please an invisible man who isn't even present in her life. Alanis's slow delivery of most of the lyrics is a nice change from her usual wordiness, but the song is still smartly written. It's another song that I can point to as an early example of compelling an unexpected songwriting, even when she was pigeonholed as just an angry rock chick.

Ironic
Mr. Play-It-Safe was afraid to fly
He packed his suitcase and kissed his kids goodbye
He waited his whole damn life to take that flight
And as the plane crashed down he thought...
Starting off with piano might not have been the best choice here - it kind of bogs down the beginning of the song. This one grew on me a little bit despite its being played to death (it was possibly the most ubiquitous hit from the original album, and there were many efforts to dissect its ironic lack of irony in those days), and once again, even though I generally disliked her voice at the time, I kind of liked the layered wailing of the uber-depressing "rain on your wedding day!" declarations. That's gone now, as we're reduced to but a single vocal from Alanis, and you guessed it, once again the life gets sucked out of the chorus, while the verses aren't really all that different. Alanis manages to get a laugh from me when she changes a lyric, perhaps infusing her song with its first true irony: "It's meeting the man of my dreams, and then meeting his beautiful... husband." Tee hee.

Not the Doctor
I don't want to be adored for what I merely represent to you
I don't want to be your babysitter, you're a very big boy now
I don't want to be your mother, I didn't carry you in my womb for nine months
Show me the back door...
This was probably the point where the original JLP really started to run out of steam, exposing some of Alanis' weaknesses as a songwriter as she tried to cram as many psychoanalytic lyrics as possible into a few bars of music. Melodically, it was a weaker shadow of her better hit songs, too, so this one was pretty skippable back in those days. Here, slowing down the tempo a little actually assists her delivery quite a bit, and the rich, glistening acoustic tunes actually lend some shade and nuance to the melody as well (I might even hear a harpsichord or a zither in there somewhere). The song is definitely one of her more mature observations on the clingy habits of a childish boyfriend, someone to whom she ends up playing mother, doctor and savior a lot more than she's comfortable with. A few of her lyrics might still seem a bit scattershot, but for the most part, it comes out stronger than the original, a smart skewering of unhealthy, co-dependent relationships. See? Even in some of her more frustrated moments, a little Alanis can be good for the psyche.

Wake Up
No sentimental value to the rose that fell on your floor
No fundamental excuse for the granted I'm taken for...
Another underappreciated song form the original JLP (and one which I actually did appreciate back in the day), which helped that album to build to a nice "official" conclusion, is represented well in its acoustic reprise here. The haunting, finger-picked intro is left intact, and once again the acoustic setting helps an eerie melody to shine, mostly using the major chords C, D, and E to create a deceptively moody tune. This one turns out to work well as an unplugged jam, and the theme from "Not the Doctor" carries over well into a song that attempts to motivate a scared boy by giving him a swift kick in the butt. It's a song for all of the agoraphobic hypochondriacs out there, who only like a challenge when that challenge requires no actual effort (therefore not making it much of a challenge). I can get that way sometimes, so I can take this one as a form of tough love, much like I took "All I Really Want". I'm glad that she left the melody and the increasing urgings of "Get up, get out of here, enough already" intact, leading up to the cold ending, which is the only point where you actually hear the song's title.

Your House
Would you forgive me, love, if I danced in your shower
Would you forgive me, love, if I laid in your bed
Would you forgive me love, if I stayed all afternoon...
So, how do you do an unplugged version of a song that was originally performed acapella? Well, you just play your instruments as usual, I guess. This one was a haunting tale of a lover discovering that she was being cheated on, made more lonely and bitter by its delivery sans instrumentation. The new version chooses to flesh out her original melody (which sounded uncomfortably off-key at times) by showing us the chord structure behind it, which does help the dramatic key change between the verse and chorus to make a little more sense. It's a way of lifting the veil and showing us the inner workings of the song, and it's interesting for that reason, even if I think the mysterious, spooky original version still leaves a much bigger impression. I'm just glad that we didn't have to sit through "You Oughta Know" again in order to get to it on this version of the album.

It's really hard to decide how to rate this thing - I want to give her a 4 for so effectively bringing this album's songwriting out into a place where it can be more easily appreciated, but because the laid-back music doesn't always fit the lyrics, it can make the album a bit dull to sit through from end to end, so for that, I'd have to give her a 3. Average the two, and you get a 3.5, which I'll have to round down instead of up, because despite the bright spots here, I'd probably still rather listen to So-Called Chaos, which is a 3.5-star album. It's worthwhile as a curio, but pick it up expecting more of a "Hmmm" reaction than a "Wow" reaction.

And let's pray we never get a Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie Acoustic. Much as I love that bizarre little album, a lot of those songs are strongly beat-driven, and stripping them down to just their melody wouldn't work very well. Fortunately, SFIJ wasn't a terribly popular follow-up, so I don't think that'll ever happen. (Sigh... I need to review SFIJ one of these days.)

ALBUM WORTH:
All I Really Want $2
You Oughta Know $.50
Perfect $2
Hand in My Pocket $.50
Right Through You $1.50
Forgiven $2
You Learn $1
Head Over Feet $.50
Mary Jane $1
Ironic $1
Not the Doctor $1.50
Wake Up $2
Your House $.50
TOTAL: $15.50

Website: http://www.alanismorissette.com

Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Cleaning the House