Got a Girl Crush On: Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill

Seminal to my adolescence, owning this album was like the boy equivalent of hiding porn from his parents. It was racy (I mean, I was 12 in 1995 and songs mentioned being drunk and friends with benefits and having intercourse). I would pop this in my walkman and rock to secondhand angst (something I was just newly developing along with a penchant for flannel).

Although it was concurrent with the airing of My So-Called Life, I couldn’t imagine Angela or Rayanne listening to You Oughta Know (although I still wonder if that song REALLY was about Uncle Joey?!). Alanis was darker and more brutally honest than female contemporaries of the time like Juliana Hatfield or Frente.

I finally just re-listened to the entire album and it’s still totally rockable–although I don’t feel quite like a prude any longer. What can I say? You cry you learn, you lose you learn….