Library Rock's Backpages

Alanis Morissette: Jagged Little Pill

Geoffrey Himes, Request, September 1995

IT'S AS IF Annette Funicello had grown up and become Janis Joplin. Just 11 years ago, Alanis Morissette was a cute, 10-year-old actress on Nickelodeon's You Can't Do That on Television. Now she has released a debut album, Jagged Little Pill, which mixes Liz Phair's in-your-face songwriting and Beck's folk-hip-hop arrangements. Morissette isn't as good a writer as Phair yet, but she's a better singer, and she has attitude to spare. Jagged Little Pill is self-indulgent and wrong-headed at times, but when it clicks, it heralds the emergence of a genuine talent.

Total word count of piece: 619

Subscribe

Becoming a member is easy. Membership gives you access to all the thousands of articles in the library.

Click here to go to Subscribe page.

Click here for academic and other group subscriptions.