My respect for Alanis Morrisette increases every time I hear her talk. Seeing how smart she was from the outset of her career was part of the story I had not looked into, but it doesn\’t really surprise me. Seeing what she had to face from the men in the industry that she had to work with and how she weathered that was inspiring.
Jagged Little Pill was an amazing album. Have I really sat down and thought about the things it achieved, what it represented, and the impact it had? Did I know what a huge album it was? I think I did know it was huge, but honestly, I had no idea it was quite so big. I had no idea what it achieved or what it represented, but this purely derives from just listening to it and Alanis\’s other music and not thinking too much about the story behind it all.
I will often avoid hype and sometimes, for me, biography is not something I need to know anything about in order to enjoy what I am listening to. I have listened to and read several interviews since the album came out all that time ago. This isn\’t as comprehensive as I would have liked — the albums that came after get scant coverage, which I suppose makes sense given the documentary\’s title, and I have to admit I would have loved something a bit more expansive. But this was great, Alanis was inspiring then and she is inspiring now, and the quality of that inspiration has both a common thread, and is also something different, which you would expect, given the intervening years.