Alanis Morissette: Jagged Little Pill Acoustic : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Once you get used to the weird, vaguely desperate idea behind Alanis Morissette's new album - it's a freshly recorded ten-year-anniversary acoustic version (sold initially just through Starbucks) of her break-through, Jagged Little Pill - you can actually enjoy it a little. Having now sung most of these songs a zillion times, Morissette turns in a powerful and nuanced vocal performance over these lighter but layered arrangements. She has never written wilder, more incisive lyrics than those that sent "You Oughta Know" flying to the top of the charts, and the tunes survive anything that she and original producer Glen Ballard throw at them - strings, harmonica, different chords for "Hand in My Pocket" and of course plenty of strummy guitars. JLP Acoustic is ultimately only a footnote to the album that made Morissette a superstar, but that disc remains one of the Nineties' key collisions of artistry and commercial bonanza.