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JLP is officially 25. Holy hell. An album that came along at the perfect time, when I, when MANY of us were still trying to figure shit out. Trying to figure ourselves out, and our places in the world...Then here comes Alanis, putting words to our teenage/young adult angst...
Personally, this album couldn't have come at a better time... I was coming to terms with a lot of things about myself...
Dave Grohl said "That's one of the great things about music, you can sing a song to 85,000 people, and they'll sing it back for 85,000 DIFFERENT reasons..."
Obviously, Alanis was feeling her own personal types of ways that led to writing these songs... But as with all art, and as Dave pointed out, it's all open to interpretation and able to be applied to and expressed in so many thoughts and feelings...
"All I Really Want" taught me to be unapologetically myself, and embrace myself, flaws and all, and that maybe those flaws weren't actually flaws... To question everything and always reach higher and dig deeper, and ask your fellow humans do the same... That we all should want some "deliverance, a place to find a common ground..."
"You Oughta Know" ...ha... Well, that one definitely gave voice to angers and frustrations, and it really was a pretty eloquent "FUCK YOU" to someone who had caused obvious emotional pain... But it also confronts said pain and expresses it and releases it and that's such an important part of the process.
"Perfect" confronts the unrealistic pressures put on us to be, well, PERFECT. Especially on children... It tackles the fallacy of trying to make your kids into something/someone YOU wanted to be... that "you'll make up for what I blew..." instead of guiding them to be themselves...
"Hand In My Pocket" is an easy favorite... An anthem of positivity... Yeah, sure all this shit is happening, but all this other GREAT stuff is happening too... The ultimate 'but on the other hand...' to assure us that everything will be "fine, fine, fine..."
"Right Through You" goes right for the jugular on sexism and dehumanization of women and continues on to confront, overcome and put an asshole right in their proper place, even though they'll "scan the credits for [their] name and wonder why it's not there..."
"Forgiven" ...WHEW... This one is an intense one for me... She talks about growing up in church... I have strong feelings about the church. I was raised Pentecostal... ...I've typed and deleted so many times, there is NO short, abridged version about how I feel about this, so I'll just leave it at that...
"You Learn" is another easy favorite, open and raw about the hard to swallow (JAGGED LITTLE PILL) truths that are just a part of life... You get through them and hopefully LEARN from them. I don't believe in "grown up." Do we ever grow all the way up? Naw, if you're doing it right, you learn and grow every day... Just "wait and see when the smoke clears..."
"Head Over Feet" is like a love/warning song... You're SO great and SO awesome, it's YOUR fault I've fallen for you... Isn't that the way it goes...
"Mary Jane" is NOT a song about cannabis... It's a song comforting a friend that seems down on their luck and hopeless... It's upfront about knowing the hardships of life, even the ones brought on by choices, but also reassuring of hope and a way through...
"Ironic" is a fun little ditty, huh? While it's obvious that there are no ACTUAL examples of irony in the song, personally, I don't care... It's catchy, it's fun to sing along to, and hell, life DOES have a "funny way of sneaking up on you when you think everything's okay and everything's going right..."
"Not the Doctor" is pretty much an ode to trying to get someone take responsibility for their life and to get their shit together... I can admit I've had to stop myself and remind my own damn self of some of these at times... "Mind the empty bottle with the holes along the bottom..."
"Wake Up" to me, beautifully confronts the danger of indifference and privilege... It's a cruel kind of hatred, indifference, but "there's an obvious attraction to the path of least resistance..." It works to bring down a notch, those people who want to be badasses until it's TIME to be a badass...
"Your House" *hidden track The first time I heard this one, I'd had the CD on repeat, fallen asleep, and woke up to it playing... It's acapella, I guess it IS a bit stalky but it's SO emotional... It takes us through someone walking through an ex's house, realizing all over again the end of the love they'd had and that the ex now shares with someone else and asks "Would you forgive me love, if I cry all afternoon..." over the loss that is again so raw...
...
And the MEMORIES that come with this album... So many nights it was a part of the collection I'd sit in my window and listen to while I chain-smoked Camel Wides and sulked about shit I laugh about now...
My brother and I once sat up all night and picked apart every line of every song and what they meant to us, and we realized each other's struggles and thoughts and dreams that much better... not that we ever needed much help with that...
Some of the best friends I've ever had, sing/yelling at the top of our lungs, drunk off our asses, being dumb as hell but making awesome memories...
25 years...
Damn.
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Ms. LC Webs
I always took "Forgive Me Love" as finding out her partner was cheating on her. That concept of her going full stalker on a guy who's legit now with someone else after they broke up... Big Lorna from "Orange is the New Black" vibes.
Your House, good lord I always get that name wrong
by Ms. LC Webs; ; Report
Definitely huge stalky vibes! I probably would've thought of Lorna as well, if I'd OINTNB had been on, lol...
by Jorie Jukebox; ; Report