The Genius, Complexity, and Legacy of Alanis Morissette
With shockingly little fanfare, one of the most important and influential albums of all time celebrated its silver anniversary last Saturday, June 13. Most acknowledge that Alanis Morissette’s Grammy-winning blockbuster “Jagged Little Pill” is a generation-defining, genre-defying masterpiece. But what many people don’t realize is that the Canadian singer-songwriter continued to gift us with sonically innovative and lyrically profound music for the next 25 years. Here, I count down the 50 greatest songs of her illustrious career.
A Brief History of Alanis Morissette
Born June 1, 1974 in Ottawa, Canada, Alanis Nadine Morissette’s entertainment career started very early. By age 7, she was already becoming a piano virtuoso and enrolled in dance classes. In junior high school she was appearing on the Canadian children’s TV series You Can’t Do That on Television. By age 14, she had recorded her first demo.
In 1991, when Alanis was only 16 years old, she released her first album (straightforwardly titled Alanis). The 10-track bubblegum pop album drew comparisons to other contemporary teen pop stars like Debbie Gibson and Tiffany. It brought her moderate success in Canada, where it reached the top 40 and was certified platinum. A follow-up album, Now is the Time, came a year later and was less successful (only being certified gold).
After the release of those two albums, Alanis relocated from Ottawa to Toronto and was introduced to producer and songwriter Glen Ballard. He was astonished by her vocal and lyrical talent and granted her use of his studio. They began collaborating on songs together and the result of their work together became the iconic album Jagged Little Pill. Legend has it that she struggled to get signed, getting rejected from most labels until she was finally offered a record deal by Maverick Records, the label that Madonna co-founded in 1992.
Fueled by its provocative lead single, the scathing, profanity-laden, revenge-fueled rock anthem “You Oughta Know,” Jagged Little Pill became a break-out success upon its release on June 13, 1995. It sold an astonishing 16 million copies in the U.S. and 33 million worldwide, making it one of the best selling albums of all time both domestically and globally (a distinction it still holds). It generated a quintet of hit singles, with “Hand In My Pocket,” “Ironic,” “You Learn,” and “Head Over Feet” following the success of the lead single. It was nominated for 8 Grammys and won 4, including the prestigious Album of the Year trophy. She supported the album with an 18-month tour that began in small clubs and ended in arenas.
After a bit of time out of the spotlight, a period which she has described as including a remarkable journey of spiritual enlightenment, she released her second album Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie on November 3, 1998. The album received very strong reviews, but confused and alienated some fans with its complex and cryptic lyrics and bold experimentation. It sold 3 million copies in the U.S. (a respectable sum, but a far cry from her prior album) and only yielded one hit single (“Thank U”).
Some attributed the lack of success of this album to a “sophomore jinx,” others to her being a “one-album wonder.” But to me, it was the inevitable outcome of an artist following her unexpected launch into superstardom with a steadfast commitment to personal and professional growth. Alanis Morissette is a singularly brilliant and wildly unconventional vocalist, writer, and producer. With Jagged Little Pill her artistic journey both coincided with, and ultimately shaped, the zeitgeist. But that was essentially capturing lightning in a bottle.
Following Junkie, Alanis released 4 more studio albums over the next two decades — 2001’s Under Rug Swept, 2004’s So-Called Chaos, 2008’s Flavors of Entanglement, and 2012’s Havoc and Bright Lights. Although these albums overall sold decently and contained some modest hits, there was undoubtedly diminishing returns in terms of buzz, sales, and airplay. Nevertheless, the albums contained some truly brilliant work. With these albums, Alanis sharpened her songwriting skills, expanded and deepened her thematic material, and experimented with new instruments and genres. She may never have created an album as cohesive and powerful as Jagged Little Pill, but her subsequent work included dozens of should-be classics and deserved far greater renown than they received.
Morissette has largely been reclusive throughout most of the past couple decades. Even with her long engagement to A-list actor Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool) and guest appearances on hit shows like Sex and the City, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Weeds, Morissette never really became a familiar face in Hollywood. Rather, she focused on her intellectual and spiritual pursuits (including podcasts and wellness workshops) and raising a family (she currently has three children with rapper Mario “Souleye” Treadway).
Before coronavirus upended the world as we knew it, 2020 was shaping up to be a big year for Morissette. A Broadway musical adaptation of the landmark album had debuted to great acclaim in December 2019, her first studio album in 8 years (Such Pretty Forks in the Road) was scheduled for release in May 2020, and she was set to embark on a major international tour to commemorate Jagged Little Pill’s 25th anniversary in the summer. All of these projects are currently paused, as is just about everything else that was set to roll out this year.
As excited as I was to see Morissette relive the glory days of Jagged Little Pill in concert this year, I was frankly more excited to hear her new music. For me, the influence and power of Alanis Morissette did not subside when the initial success of Jagged Little Pill inevitably ran its course. I have savored her subsequent releases, which mined fascinating new thematic and lyrical territory while maintaining superb vocals and production. Alanis has delved deeper and more bravely into her own biography, psychological concepts, spiritual quandaries, and the complexities of feminism more than any singer-songwriter I have ever encountered the work of.
Ultimately, I suppose I have never thought of Alanis Morissette as many do — a rock musician who was mega-famous for a brief time in the 1990s. Rather, I have always thought of her as a complex and unfathomably brilliant musical prodigy, poet, spiritual guru, and philosopher who just happened to be a mega-famous rock star for a brief time.
Without further ado, I now count down the 50 greatest songs Alanis Morissette ever recorded. I excluded her first two pop-oriented Canadian albums that she released as a teenager simply because I have never heard them. (They are not available for download, streaming, or even old-school CD purchase currently.) I constructed the final product by first drafting a preliminary list of her best songs from memory and then subsequently editing and rearranging it as I revisited all 112 original songs in her catalogue that I had obtained over the years (including B-sides, bonus tracks, and soundtrack cuts).
Alanis Morissette’s 50 Greatest Songs
50. “Death of Cinderella” (Jagged Little Pill — Deluxe Edition). This outtake from the Jagged Little Pill sessions, which was eventually released as a bonus track on the deluxe edition, lacks most of the polish and some of the maturity of the tracks that did make the cut. Nevertheless, it covers powerful lyrical ground as Alanis observes the tragedy of a woman with so much to offer the world who was outcasted because she didn’t do what society demanded her to do — find a man and settle down. The transition between the minimalistic, pensive verses and the utterly ferocious choruses show what a bold innovator she is.
49. “Everything” (So-Called Chaos). The lead single from the album So-Called Chaos is atypically tender for Alanis, both in its relatively restrained production and its poignant lyrics about being utterly dumbfounded by the fact that someone could see every aspect of you and love you anyway.
48. “Lens” (Havoc and Bright Lights). A pensive Alanis tries to call a truce with the lover she’s endlessly sparring with in this ultimately hopeful song that features ethereal production and complex, layered vocals.
47. “Crazy” (The Collection). Alanis covered the thought-provoking and evocative 1990 song written and performed by Seal and gave it an unexpected dance remix makeover. It is undoubtedly an anomaly in her catalogue, being one of the few covers or pop-dance songs she released and also because it was featured in a GAP advertising campaign and the film The Devil Wears Prada, as well as being tacked on to her 2005 greatest hits album (The Collection). But it nevertheless works terrifically well.
46. “Not the Doctor” (Jagged Little Pill). When a song this good marks one of the weakest tracks of an album, you know it’s a bona fide masterpiece. This acoustic guitar-driven song features Alanis telling an emotionally damaged lover that she cannot take on all his baggage (“I don’t want to live on someday when my motto is last week/ I don’t want to be responsible for your fractured heart and its wounded beat”).
45. “Front Row” (Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie). The opening track to Alanis’s followup to Jagged Little Pill embodies the album to a T — it’s remarkably ambitious, layered with indecipherable vocals, difficult to uncover the meaning of, wildly overproduced, and dizzyingly brilliant.
44. “Giggling Again for No Reason” (Flavors of Entanglement). Although it transitions into a slightly overproduced and overly frothy pop ditty as it progresses, the opening of this song is among my favorite work she has ever done in terms of production and lyrics (“I am driving in my car up Highway One/ I left L.A. without telling anyone/ There were people who needed something from me/ But I’m sure they’ll get along fine on their own/ Oh, this state of ecstasy/ Nothing but road could ever give to me/ This liberty wind in my face/ And I’m giggling again for no reason.”)
43. “Smiling” (Such Pretty Forks in the Road). This track from her forthcoming album was originally written for the Broadway musical adaptation of Jagged Little Pill and is a strong addition to her impressive oeuvre. This alternately haunting and hopeful song is about how she has kept on smiling and moving forward despite all of the setbacks, detours, and tragedies that have befallen her.
42. “So-Called Chaos” (So-Called Chaos). The title track from her 2004 album is a rousing and cathartic ode to liberating yourself from the stress and mundaneness of everyday life so you can fly wild and free.
41. “Citizen of the Planet” (Flavors of Entanglement). This opening track to her 2008 album Flavors of Entanglement is an ethereal and transcendent rock song with lyrics dripping with imagery and symbolism. More than any other song in her catalogue, this represents the musical manifestation of her long-gestating spiritual journey.
40. “That I Would Be Good” (Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie). This muted, restrained ballad finds Alanis bearing her soul about her intense desire to still be loved and perceived as a good person no matter what turns her life took or what parts of her soul are laid bare. The song ends with a vocal free, minute-long coda where Alanis picks up the flute and leads the song to an effectively tentative conclusion.
39. “Perfect” (Jagged Little Pill). This heartbreaking ode to overly demanding, hyper-critical parents who induce chronic feelings of insecurity and shame in their children is one of the quieter moments on her landmark album, but it is a real gut punch right up to the final lines: “We’ll love you just the way you are/ If you’re perfect.”
38. “Underneath” (Flavors of Entanglement). The lead single from the album Flavors of Entanglement might not break new musical ground, but it contains an infectious chorus and incisive lyrics about how we tend to look with hypocritical disdain at the problems of the world without realizing that we are enabling them and playing them out in our own lives.
37. “Eight Easy Steps” (So-Called Chaos). This punchy, chaotic, and brief opening track to the album So-Called Chaos finds a tongue-in-cheek Alanis offering a self-help course in everything she has learned about being hypocritical, self-defeating, and ineffective.
36. “King of Pain” (MTV Unplugged). Alanis covered this 1984 hit by The Police (which was released as the follow-up single to their mega-hit “Every Breath You Take”) for her MTV Unplugged set. The mystical and evocative lyrics are a great fit for Alanis, as they tap into spirituality and the inner workings of the human mind, and the arrangement is impeccable and infectious.
35. “Right Through You” (Jagged Little Pill). The shortest and most electric guitar-driven track on Jagged Little Pill is this disdain-drenched polemic against a dismissive former lover. The song is filled with blistering and quotable lyrics (e.g., “You took me out to wine dine, sixty-nine me/ But didn’t hear a damn word I said”).
34. “Sympathetic Character” (Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie). The song begins soft both in terms of production and lyrics as she lists the reasons she gradually became terrified of a lover only to explode into a cacophony of rage (“I have as much rage as you have/ I have as much pain as you do/ I’ve lived as much hell as you have/ And I’ve kept mine bubbling under for you.”)
33. “Versions of Violence” (Flavors of Entanglement). Here, Alanis reflects on how interpersonal violence takes on many forms and even the ones that aren’t physical still leave scars. The robotic vocals and heavy bass of the verses gives way to an electric guitar- and synthesizer-heavy chorus.
32.“Thank U” (Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie). The lead single off of Alanis’s follow-up to Jagged Little Pill was a marked departure from most of the songs on the album that catapulted her to superstardom. It is a relatively restrained, mid-tempo song with hopeful lyrics in which she catalogues all of the things that have contributed to the intense spiritual journey that she went on after her world was forever changed by her newfound fame.
31. “Spineless” (So-Called Chaos). In this superbly produced rock song, Alanis chronicles all the ways she has abandoned her values and sacrificed her identity to service men throughout her life and then confesses to the listener why she’s putting herself through this painful exercise (“I feel this, truly proclaimed/ Will help the curbing of this tendency/ I know this sharing of shame/ Will ensure that I won’t forget myself so easily”).
30. “Spiral” (Havoc and Bright Lights). The bouncy production and catchy chorus belie the fact that this song is actually Alanis’s first-hand account of how she is frequently sidelined by an out-of-left-field deluge of negative emotions such as shame and fear that threaten to completely engulf her.
29. “Out is Through” (So-Called Chaos). This acoustic guitar-driven pop-rock song finds Alanis reflecting on the realization that when relationships get difficult she is driven to avoidance and escape fantasies, but that deep down she knows the only way out of the darkness is facing it and working through it (sample lyric: “We could just walk away and hide our heads in the sand/ We could just call it quits only to start all over again/ With somebody else.”) It is a profoundly insightful and hopeful song.
28. “Princes Familiar” (MTV Unplugged). This acoustic live cut from her Unplugged sessions is remarkably thematically, lyrically, and melodically complex. The song urges men to remember that how they treat their daughters when they are young creates a template for what they learn to expect from men for the rest of their life (e.g., “Papa cry for your princess so that she will find gentle princes familiar”). It’s a remarkably ambitious, powerful, and important song.
27. “Not As We” (Flavors of Entanglement). Alanis was engaged to actor Ryan Reynolds (a fellow Canadian who would go on to A-list status with films like Deadpool) for several years before a devastating breakup. The pain of that breakup is chronicled in this wrenching, piano-driven ballad in which Alanis chronicles the pain and insecurity of going it alone (“Day one, day one/ Start over again/ Step one, step one/ I’m barely making sense/ For now I’m faking it/ ’Til I’m pseudo making it/ From scratch, begin again/ But this time I as I and not as we.”)
26. “Are You Still Mad?” (Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie). This slow-building song begins with soft, looping piano chords accompanied by tentative lyrics where Alanis inquires about whether a lover is still angry about what went wrong in their relationship. The song then takes a dramatic, unexpected twist as the instrumentation intensifies and the tone grows snarky and taunting (“Are you still mad that I threw in the towel?/ Are you still mad that I gave up long before you did?/ Of course you are/ Of course you are”).
25. “You Owe Me Nothing in Return” (Under Rug Swept). This restrained and elegant track evokes the power and mystery of completely selfless love better than perhaps any song I have ever heard (“I bet you’re wondering when the next payback shoe will eventually drop/ I bet you’re wondering when my conditional police will force you to cough up/ I bet you’re wondering how far you have now danced your way back into debt/ This is the only kind of love, as I understand it, that there really is.”)
24. “Excuses” (So-Called Chaos). This rousing pop-rock anthem finds Alanis reflecting on how the litany of excuses she has long used for not facing, embracing, or moving forward in life were intended to keep her safe, but really kept her stuck. A bouncy production and a catchy chorus belie the profundity of the subject matter.
23. “Baba” (Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie). Repetitive electric guitar riffs dominate the verses, giving way to a bombastic chorus and ultimately to a haunting choral coda. And the lyrics are a brilliant example of how far Alanis strays from the pop/rock norms with her subject matter. When is the last time you heard a song that was a vicious take-down of opportunists who brandish themselves as spiritual gurus and a rebuke of the foolish people that purchase their snake oil?
22. “Sister Blister” (Feast on Scraps). One of the stranger decisions that Alanis (or her record label) made was cutting this fierce and brilliant track from her third album Under Rug Swept. (It was later released on Feast on Scraps, a collection of B-sides.) The song comes just about as close as she ever has to full-on heavy metal with a bombastic arrangement that enhances the power of the lyrics, which chronicle how internalized misogyny pits women against each other for the benefit of men.
21. “Doth I Protest Too Much?” (So-Called Chaos). This is one of the most powerful and effective examples of Alanis’s penchant for crafting a tongue-in-cheek alternative rock songs about her own insecurities and hypocrisies. Here we find her defensively rejecting countless labels that fit her far too well (“I’m not jealous/ I don’t get moved by much/ I’m not enraged/ Not insecure as such/ Not going insane/ Rational stays in touch/ Doth I protest too much?”). Fun fact: The titular refrain derives from a line in Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
20. “Precious Illusions” (Under Rug Swept). One of Alanis’s finest hours as a lyricist and a vocalist is this complex and introspective song about the battle between idealism and realism and the need to let go of the former as painful as it is. It is catchy, superbly produced, and is essentially confessional poetry set to music (“This ring will help me yet, as will you, knight in shining armor/ This pill will help me yet, as will these boys gone through like water/ But this won’t work as well as the way it once did/ ’Cause I want to decide between survival and bliss/ And though I know who I’m not, I still don’t know who I am/ But I know I won’t keep on playing the victim.”)
19. “All I Really Want” (Jagged Little Pill). The opening track to the legendary Jagged Little Pill, this aggressive, sprawling, guitar-driven song flawlessly sets the tone for the album and firmly announces the arrival of a musical force. The best moment (and one of the best in Alanis’s catalogue) comes when she taunts her lover by singing “Why are you so petrified of silence? Here can you handle this?” and then for a brief moment all sound drops out before she resumes, “Did you think about your bills, you ex, your deadlines?/ Or when you think you’re going to die?/ Or did you long for the next distraction?”
18. “These R The Thoughts” (MTV Unplugged). Originally a cut track from Jagged Little Pill, Morissette retooled this track for her MTV Unplugged session. The hypnotic, guitar driven song contains lyrics that are a dizzying journey through her stream-of-consciousness as she mulls over the profound and the mundane, only to culminate in a breakthrough: “Why cannot I live in the moment?”
17. “Unsent” (Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie). Proving that you don’t have to be bombastic with production or edgy in your lyrics to be musically experimental, one of Alanis’s sweetest and most restrained songs is also one of her most bold and unconventional. With no hook or chorus to speak of, this acoustic guitar-driven gem ostensibly strings together a number of letters she has written to ex-lovers, reflecting on the time they spent together.
16. “So Unsexy” (Under Rug Swept). This alternative rock song clocks in at over 5 minutes and compels and engrosses for its entire length. The song finds Alanis at her most introspective as she examines why her mind turns even the tiniest of slights into personal attacks and catastrophes. Rarely has examining one’s own neuroses been transformed into such good music.
15. “So Pure” (Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie). An utter anomaly in Alanis’s catalogue this comes the closest to peppy, dance floor pop as she ever would (at least since her Jagged Little Pill makeover). The utter transcendence of the 2 minute and 50 second ditty can’t help make you wonder what pop gems we could have been gifted if she had pursued that sound.
14. “Reasons I Drink” (Such Pretty Forks in the Road). The lead single from her forthcoming album starts with a peppy piano intro and a confessional (“These are the reasons I drink/ The reasons I tell everybody I’m fine even though I am not”) and then explodes into a rousing chorus with a vocal performance that is both raw and soaring. This song addresses the quandary that so many people face — when the only coping strategies that work to quiet the pain in the short-term cause profound problems in the long-term. The fact that she delivered one of her greatest songs a quarter century after the release of Jagged Little Pill is a testament to her talent and endurance.
13. “You Learn” (Jagged Little Pill). This infectious and empowering song features a much lighter arrangement and vocal performance than most of the songs on Jagged Little Pill and interesting and is the source of the album title (“Swallow it down (what a jagged little pill)/ It feels so good (swimming in your stomach)”). It is an ode to the importance of making bad decisions that you learn and grow from and perfectly fits with the themes of the album while also striking a tonal and musical contrast that balances out some of the album’s darker, harsher elements.
12. “Woman Down” (Havoc and Bright Lights). The best song Alanis has released in the last decade, the verses of this song chronicle the intergenerational transmission of misogyny beginning with a misogynist learning from his father (“First woman down was your mother/ She did condone how you behave/ All you could see was your father/ His disrespect was in her face”) and ultimately releasing his reign of terror onto his daughter (“Next woman down is your daughter/ A stranger to being debased/ She has a new lease and limit/ On the abuse she’ll tolerate.”) The verses are broken up by a blistering refrain in which she calls on all women-hating men to reform.
11. “Ironic” (Jagged Little Pill). Okay, okay. We all know that she doesn’t actually use the word “ironic” correctly in the song. And Alanis knows it, too. (Come on, she was 19 when she wrote it!). It’s a song about unfortunate coincidences ranging from the amusingly absurd to the absolutely tragic. This rivals “You Oughta Know” as the most popular and iconic songs of her entire catalogue. And for good reason — it is still an engrossing and evocative listening decades later.
10. “Straitjacket” (Flavors of Entanglement). This lean, angry, and utterly explosive banger about a lover gaslighting her opens with one of the most incisive and poetic lyrics she has ever written: “Something so benign for me/Construed as cruelty/Such a difference between who I am and who you see/ Conclusions you come to of me/ Routinely incorrect/ I don’t know who you’re talking to/ With such fucking disrespect.”
9. “Forgiven” (Jagged Little Pill). For nearly a quarter century I slept on this song and dismissed it as one of the weaker tracks on Jagged Little Pill. In my revisiting of her catalogue in preparation for this article, I find myself absolutely baffled how I could have been so wrong. The song is a blistering rebuke of Catholicism, and more generally the people who inflict torture while being hypocritically pious (“I sang Alleluia in the choir/ I confessed my darkest deeds to an envious man/ 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.”) The song is a visceral, haunting experience.
8. “Incomplete” (Flavors of Entanglement). The closing track to her highly underrated 2008 album Flavors of Entanglement is this utterly euphoric, profound, and optimistic song that is “therapy pop” at its absolute best. The verses list off all of the things that Alanis aspires to become, obtain, and achieve, while the choruses and final bridge counter this with a reminder that human beings are forever incomplete — and that’s what makes life so beautiful (“I have been running/ So sweaty my whole life/ Urgent for a finish line/ And I have been missing/ The rapture this whole time/ Of being forever incomplete”).
7. “Hand In My Pocket” (Jagged Little Pill). This harmonica-assisted rock track is one of her best and most identifiable songs. It is a timeless, laid-back tribute to generation X angst (“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/ What it all comes down to/ Is that everything is going to be quite alright/ ’Cause I’ve got one hand in my pocket/ And the other one is flicking a cigarette.”)
6. “This Grudge” (So-Called Chaos). This sprawling, piano-driven ballad succeeds remarkably on two levels. The first is that it’s a haunting singer-songwriter confessional that matches the greatest works of the sub-genre. The second is that it is a profound reflection on Morissette’s personal and professional growth. In the song, she reflects on the anger and rage that catapulted her to success (“14 years, 30 minutes, 15 seconds/ I’ve held this grudge/11 songs, 4 full journals/ Thoughts of punishment I’ve expended/ Not in contact, not a letter/ Such communication telepathic/ You’ve been vilified, used as fodder/ You deserve a piece of every record”), the enormous emotional cost of holding onto it (“But who’s still aching now?/ Who’s tired of her own voice?/ Who’s it weighing down/ With no gift from time of said healing?”), and her commitment to moving on (“I want to be big and let go of this grudge that’s grown old/ All this time I’ve not known how to rest this bygone/ I want to be soft and resolved/ Clean of slate and released/ I want to forgive for the both of us”).
5. “Head Over Feet” (Jagged Little Pill). For any naysayers who complain that Alanis lost her edge or became too soft as time went on, I highlight this track to show that this part of her was there all along. One of her first smash hits, this is a remarkably tender and romantic soft rock ode to a kind and patient and lover (“You’ve already won me over/ In spite of me/ And don’t be alarmed if I fall head over feet/ And don’t be surprised if I love you for all that you are/ I couldn’t help it/ It’s all your fault.”) The lyrics are beautiful, the chorus is catchy as hell, and it has a killer harmonica solo.
4. “Uninvited” (City of Angels Soundtrack). After the blockbuster success of Jagged Little Pill, everyone was curious to see what Alanis would do next. Few expected her next song to be one she wrote and performed for an utterly strange and forgettable supernatural romantic drama starring Nicolas Cage and Meg Ryan, but that’s what happened. And thank God it did. Built on four recurring piano notes and mounting to a thrilling orchestral climax, the song is filled with cryptic lyrics and a remarkably powerful vocal performance. The haunting masterpiece won two Grammys and should have won an Oscar (bafflingly, it wasn’t even nominated for Best Original Song).
3. “You Oughta Know” (Jagged Little Pill). This alternative rock masterpiece announced Alanis’s arrival as a massive and undeniable talent at only age 20. The blistering rage of the lyrics, vocals, and orchestration have made the song endure for a quarter century. It is one of the most iconic and important songs of the 1990s and remains a generation’s go-to therapy for processing rage toward an ex (“And every time I scratch my nails down someone else’s back I hope you feel it/ Now can you feel it?”).
2. “Joining You” (Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie). With its variable pacing, expansive arrangement, and scream-along chorus, “Joining You” would likely still be one of Alanis’s most innovative, memorable, and cathartic songs even if it had been lyrically inert. But the lyrics are actually the best part. The song finds Alanis trying to talk a childhood friend out of completing suicide by reminding them that we are so much more than the failures, insecurities, and disappointments that consume us when we are in despair and that there is something to live for. After hundreds (maybe thousands) of listens, this song still rocks me to my core.
1. “Hands Clean” (Under Rug Swept). Everything brilliant about Morissette as a lyricist, composer, vocalist, and producer converges in this massively underrated pop/rock masterpiece, which was released as the lead single off of her 2001 album Under Rug Swept. The remarkably complex lyrics repeatedly shift perspectives, span the course of years, and alternate between witty and devastating. Never the conventional songwriter, Alanis’s masterwork is not-so-subtly about statutory rape and is primarily in the voice of the perpetrator — the older man who is taking advantage of an underage woman (“I might want to marry you one day/ If you’d watch that weight and you keep your firm body”). The chorus and bridge, however, switch to the perspective of the victim when she is older and wiser (“What part of our history is reinvented and under rug swept?/ What part of your memory is selective and tends to forget?/ What with this distance it seems so obvious”). In the history of music, few songs are as fun a listen on the surface and as layered, complex, and heartbreaking beneath as “Hands Clean.”
Read countdowns of the greatest songs by other female musical legends:
