Jagged Little Pill by Alanis Morissette

Jagged Little Pill, Alanis Morissette's third album, landed on Maverick in June 1995, and it's the sound of a former dance-pop singer from Ottawa tearing up the old script. She'd moved to Los Angeles, met Glen Ballard and clicked with him instantly, and the pair co-wrote and tinkered their way to an alternative rock record cut at Westlake in Hollywood, all crunchy guitars, drum machines, keyboards and harmonica, with shades of post-grunge, hip-hop and pop rock. It was her first album released worldwide, and it was a world away from the dance-pop of Alanis and Now Is the Time.

The songs seethe with aggression and relationships gone wrong, and Ballard's pop smarts made the fury go down easy. "You Oughta Know" is pure scorched earth, spat out over a thundering groove, "All I Really Want" rambles and rages, "Hand in My Pocket" ambles along with a shrug, "Ironic" sways and smirks, and "You Learn", which gave the album its title, and "Head over Feet" show the warmer side.

The reviews were strong, and the trophies were stronger: 9 Grammy nominations and 5 wins, including Album of the Year, which made her the youngest winner of that award at the time. It went seventeen times platinum in the US and double diamond in Canada, the first Canadian artist to get there, and it has sold over 33 million copies worldwide. It later became a stage musical that reached Broadway and landed 15 Tony nominations.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.