Alanis Morissette “Jagged Little Pill” CS (1995)

Details: “Jagged Little Pill” is the third studio album by singer Alanis Morissette, released in 1995, through Maverick. Play-tested. Fantastic condition!

Description: "It may be difficult to comprehend now, in the fractured world of streaming and micro-fandom, but “Jagged Little Pill” was once one of the biggest albums in the world. In 1996, the record sold more than 10 million copies; it has sold another 20 million since, according to Entertainment Weekly. To put it another way, this one album, written by a former teenage pop star from Canada, has sold as many copies as Taylor Swift’s entire discography combined. Morissette’s lyrics are funny and rebellious (it’s still electrifying to mouth the words “Would she go down on you in a theater?” from “You Oughta Know”), but they came packaged in high-gloss, catchy, grand ballads. She wasn’t just angry at an ex-boyfriend; she was slicing herself open with rage, interrupting his dinner to howl “you told me you’d hold me until you died, and you’re still alive.”

Most of the songs on “Jagged Little Pill” began as a transcription of Morissette’s interior monologue while she was living alone in Los Angeles, spending a lot of time rollerblading on the Santa Monica pier. She had moved there from Ontario, where, as a child, she became first a television star and then a pop sensation. She began searching for collaborators, finally settling on the producer Glen Ballard, who had worked with Michael Jackson and Wilson Phillips. (“Ironic” was the only song whose lyrics they wrote together; the rest came directly from Morissette’s diary.) After a year, she and Ballard had a demo of unpolished, one-take recordings that they’d made late at night in Ballard’s studio. What happened next is the stuff of rock legend — a dozen labels rejected the demos, but then Guy Oseary, a 23-year-old A.&R. executive at Maverick (which was then Madonna’s label), heard “You Oughta Know,” “Perfect” and “Hand in My Pocket” and signed Morissette on the spot. A majority of the vocals on the album were drawn from the original tapes."

Grade: NM (CS/Sleeve)

TRACK LISTING SIDE A:

A1. All I Really Want
A2. You Oughtta Know
A3. Perfect 
A4. Hand In My Pocket 
A5. Right Through You
A6. Forgiven 

TRACK LISTING SIDE B:

B1. You Learn
B2. Head Over Feet
B3. Mary Jane 
B4. Ironic
B5. Not The Doctor 
B6. Wake Up