tough one.
You can say that again.
― Dom Passantino, Sunday, 6 January 2008 15:59 (sixteen years ago) link
i mean, it comes down to: All I Really Want, You Oughta Know and Hand In My Pocket.
― Surmounter, Sunday, 6 January 2008 16:04 (sixteen years ago) link
i'm not sure i can vote for anything besides You Oughta Know...
I'm a big fan of Head over Feet.
― I know, right?, Sunday, 6 January 2008 16:10 (sixteen years ago) link
"All I Really Want" makes babies bleed.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Sunday, 6 January 2008 16:12 (sixteen years ago) link
why are you so petrified of silence? here, can you handle this?
did you think about your bills, your ex, your deadlines? or when you think you're gonna die?? or did you long for the next distraction?
― Surmounter, Sunday, 6 January 2008 16:15 (sixteen years ago) link
easiest poll ever, "You Oughta Know" obv.
― Euler, Sunday, 6 January 2008 17:35 (sixteen years ago) link
yea...
― Surmounter, Sunday, 6 January 2008 17:36 (sixteen years ago) link
will she go down on Dave Coulier in a theater?
― milo z, Sunday, 6 January 2008 17:45 (sixteen years ago) link
I mean seriously "You Oughta Know" is a killer single, such an exciting beginning. The song is like Jock Jams for the Lilith Fair set, which sounds a totally awesome genre. Some of the other songs are good (e.g. "Hand In My Pocket" is catchy) but...
― Euler, Sunday, 6 January 2008 17:48 (sixteen years ago) link
i remember when got the sparse beauty of hand in my pocket. it was like whoa.
but yea, you oughta know was KILLLLLER. when i frst heard it, i saw the video, and i was just mesmerized.
― Surmounter, Sunday, 6 January 2008 17:53 (sixteen years ago) link
I remember these as my favorites, although it's been a while since I've listened to this one straight through:
All I Really Want Hand In My Pocket Right Through You You Learn Not The Doctor
I think I'm gonna have to break with the pack and go for "You Learn" just over "All I Really Want" - it's probably the most exciting track on the record. "The smo-oo-oke clears!"
― Doctor Casino, Sunday, 6 January 2008 17:56 (sixteen years ago) link
"Hand In My Pocket" is a sweet tune.
― Noodle Vague, Sunday, 6 January 2008 18:14 (sixteen years ago) link
"You Learn" was my pick too, but it's still really hard for me to decontextualize this album from the summer of 1995, when I worked at a chain record store and had to hear it over the store speakers about 2000 times.
I can't even put into words how much I HATE "You Oughta Know."
― Johnny Fever, Sunday, 6 January 2008 18:17 (sixteen years ago) link
All of it is indefensibly sanctimonious shit and you should all be ashamed of yourselves.
― Alex in NYC, Sunday, 6 January 2008 19:36 (sixteen years ago) link
Yes, god forbid someone doesn't share your taste.
-- Alex in NYC, Thursday, 20 December 2007 13:27 (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Link
― Noodle Vague, Sunday, 6 January 2008 19:38 (sixteen years ago) link
This isn't about taste, this is about crime and punishment.
― Alex in NYC, Sunday, 6 January 2008 19:43 (sixteen years ago) link
"jagged little poll", surely
― roxymuzak, Sunday, 6 January 2008 19:48 (sixteen years ago) link
Bahaha
― Alex in NYC, Sunday, 6 January 2008 19:48 (sixteen years ago) link
wow
― Surmounter, Sunday, 6 January 2008 20:00 (sixteen years ago) link
Is there a track of silence before the hidden track?
That one.
― Usual Channels, Sunday, 6 January 2008 20:03 (sixteen years ago) link
Not even close. "You Oughta Know" one of the decade's best hit singles; the rest of the album is safely missable.
The War Against Silence reviews the record in 1995:
Three things immediately caught my attention about her now-Buzz-Clip video for "You Oughta Know": first, parts of the song reminded me nostalgically of the Bee Gees (something about the parallel downward scales of "'Cause the love that you gave that we made wasn't able..." and "Feel the city breaking and everybody's shaking..."); second, the confidence and power of Alanis' vocal delivery stopped my channel-changing finger in mid-punch; and third, the pain and vitriol evident in the lines "Does she know how you told me you'd hold me / Until you died, 'til you died / But you're still alive" caused me to toss the remote control aside in sudden enraptured fascination, a laudably enthusiastic response that I nonetheless came to partially regret later, when I discovered the remote suspended in a half-full glass of water unaccountably abandoned in a corner of the living room that I guess I need to scan for stray dishes more often.
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Sunday, 6 January 2008 20:36 (sixteen years ago) link
Wow, that's awful.
― milo z, Sunday, 6 January 2008 20:39 (sixteen years ago) link
Pretty bad.
― roxymuzak, Sunday, 6 January 2008 20:44 (sixteen years ago) link
hahahahaha... that song
yea
― Surmounter, Sunday, 6 January 2008 21:00 (sixteen years ago) link
see, it's on threads like this one where alex in nyc really earns his keep
― gershy, Sunday, 6 January 2008 21:06 (sixteen years ago) link
fuck this cd and fuck alanis and her strangled chihuahua voice i'm voting ironic
― J0rdan S., Sunday, 6 January 2008 21:07 (sixteen years ago) link
i distinctly remember owning this cd when i was 8 or 9 but i couldn't imagine sitting through this ever
― J0rdan S., Sunday, 6 January 2008 21:08 (sixteen years ago) link
i mean I KNOW i jammed this on the portable cd player on the bus and shit but she makes me shudder now
Hand In My Pocket is just about bearable I suppose.
― chap, Sunday, 6 January 2008 21:09 (sixteen years ago) link
yea that becomes the bearable one over time.
― Surmounter, Sunday, 6 January 2008 21:15 (sixteen years ago) link
the harmonica solo isn't bearable.
― bendy, Sunday, 6 January 2008 21:15 (sixteen years ago) link
Don't you people like songs about vengeful ghosts? What's wrong with you?
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Sunday, 6 January 2008 21:16 (sixteen years ago) link
I didn't think I could like an artist less than her, but then I kinda liked the song she did for the Wings of Desire remake. I'm a sucker for Kashmir rip-offs.
How about "the going down on your poll in a theater"?
― bendy, Sunday, 6 January 2008 21:20 (sixteen years ago) link
"Ironic" is the best song, so it would be ironic if it doesn't win this poll.
― Geir Hongro, Sunday, 6 January 2008 21:48 (sixteen years ago) link
omg
― J0rdan S., Sunday, 6 January 2008 21:48 (sixteen years ago) link
WOW BOB WOW
― roxymuzak, Sunday, 6 January 2008 21:49 (sixteen years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― ILX System, Wednesday, 9 January 2008 00:01 (sixteen years ago) link
lol geir's comment really takes the cake here. either that one or roxy's "jagged little poll." not sure.
― Surmounter, Wednesday, 9 January 2008 00:42 (sixteen years ago) link
lol and jordan your omg afterward cracked me up
"Ironic" for the boldness in which the word was misused for an entire song.
but yea she sucks.
― Bo Jackson Overdrive, Wednesday, 9 January 2008 04:53 (sixteen years ago) link
"Hand In My Pocket" will never fail to fascinate me for its complete and utter refusal to rhyme. First 3 choruses she pairs up "fine fine" with "high five", "all right" with "cigarette", and "just yet" with "peace sign". The first and third lines of the chorus never change, which means that if she'd wanted to (or tried), she could've switched a few lines around and gotten "fine fine/peace sign", "just yet/cigarette" and "all right/high five", all without changing the essential meaning of the song - whatever that is - but she didn't. Ironic...
― Myonga Vön Bontee, Wednesday, 9 January 2008 05:29 (sixteen years ago) link
/english teacher who handed out 'ironic' lyrics bcuz to show what an irony isn't and lol i'm a fun teacher lol
― J0rdan S., Wednesday, 9 January 2008 05:32 (sixteen years ago) link
The first and third lines of the chorus never change, which means that if she'd wanted to (or tried), she could've switched a few lines around and gotten "fine fine/peace sign", "just yet/cigarette" and "all right/high five", all without changing the essential meaning of the song - whatever that is - but she didn't.
I quite like it when songs do this. But not when they're by Alanis Morissette.
My two best friends in high school spent many hours discussing how amazing the album was. I wonder what they think of it now. They taped it for me to try to convert me but I already found her kind of unbearable and the tape must have warped so it sounded positively nauseating.
― a passing spacecadet, Wednesday, 9 January 2008 09:36 (sixteen years ago) link
FUCKING HELL I HAD NEVER NOTICED THIS BEFORE
― Noodle Vague, Wednesday, 9 January 2008 09:38 (sixteen years ago) link
The bit where the man who never flew says "Isn't this nice?" while unknown to him, the plane is crashing.
That bit gets "Ironic" right. The rest, no.
― Mark G, Wednesday, 9 January 2008 09:57 (sixteen years ago) link
― Noodle Vague, Wednesday, 9 January 2008 09:59 (sixteen years ago) link
She is quite tall looking.
― Mark G, Wednesday, 9 January 2008 10:02 (sixteen years ago) link
omg guys
― J0rdan S., Wednesday, 9 January 2008 10:03 (sixteen years ago) link
what alternate internet do i live in where ppl are still debating the correctness of 'ironic'?
― J0rdan S., Wednesday, 9 January 2008 10:04 (sixteen years ago) link
"see this tower here in pisa... well... it isn't exactly straight"
~Well, that's ironic!
― Mark G, Wednesday, 9 January 2008 10:05 (sixteen years ago) link
>_<
― J0rdan S., Wednesday, 9 January 2008 10:10 (sixteen years ago) link
― Surmounter, Wednesday, 9 January 2008 15:16 (sixteen years ago) link
I had not thought of this album in a very long time and I went into a shoeshop this lunchbreak and "Mary Jane" caterwauled out at me! This is the kind of coincidence I do not much care for. Is it critical reevaluation time already? Should I be placing money on a Meredith Brooks revival next? Maybe a bassline remix of that Joan Osbourne song will be this summer's zeitgeisty smash?
Err. As you were.
― a passing spacecadet, Wednesday, 9 January 2008 15:36 (sixteen years ago) link
wow i just voted for All I Really Want. i don't know what came over me i just really needed to do that.
lol meredith brooks
― Surmounter, Wednesday, 9 January 2008 15:39 (sixteen years ago) link
i hate this album
― Zeno, Wednesday, 9 January 2008 15:57 (sixteen years ago) link
Yay!
― Alex in NYC, Wednesday, 9 January 2008 17:44 (sixteen years ago) link
Yeah, Kool Keith does quite a lot of this kind of fucking around with rhyme schemes. But he's rather better than Morrisette.
― chap, Wednesday, 9 January 2008 17:47 (sixteen years ago) link
-- Surmounter, Wednesday, 9 January 2008 15:16 (3 hours ago) Link
― J0rdan S., Wednesday, 9 January 2008 18:37 (sixteen years ago) link
hahaha. that one's comin in useful on this thread
― Surmounter, Wednesday, 9 January 2008 18:40 (sixteen years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― ILX System, Thursday, 10 January 2008 00:01 (sixteen years ago) link
hot off the press: 'you oughta know' wins in landslide.
did you guys know that song was about full house funnyman, dave coulier?
― Charlie Howard, Thursday, 10 January 2008 01:50 (sixteen years ago) link
that's what i hear
i'm into the top 4 results tho, 3 of those were my top 3 pix.
― Surmounter, Thursday, 10 January 2008 01:51 (sixteen years ago) link
I used to think that Alanis Morissette was related to Morrissey. How they were related, I don't know.
― musically, Thursday, 10 January 2008 01:59 (sixteen years ago) link
cosmically. cosmically they may be related.
― Surmounter, Thursday, 10 January 2008 02:01 (sixteen years ago) link
woulda been more entertaining if it were "You Oughta Fart"
― Bo Jackson Overdrive, Thursday, 10 January 2008 02:06 (sixteen years ago) link
^:(
― J0rdan S., Thursday, 10 January 2008 02:32 (sixteen years ago) link
bo :( :( :( :( :( :(
― J0rdan S., Thursday, 10 January 2008 02:33 (sixteen years ago) link
i'd swap 2nd and 3rd place but i think these results more or less put the singles from this album in the correct order of quality. jesus, though, 6 big singles (5 with videos) for such a terrible terrible artist.
― Alex in Baltimore, Thursday, 10 January 2008 02:34 (sixteen years ago) link
was All I Really Want a single? shoulda been i s'pose
i dunno if i agree with the Head Over Feet result... i mean it's a little BLA
yeah the videos were BIG!!
― Surmounter, Thursday, 10 January 2008 02:44 (sixteen years ago) link
esp. the Ironic video. haha
"All I Really Want" didn't have a video but it was a big modern rock hit.
― Alex in Baltimore, Thursday, 10 January 2008 03:00 (sixteen years ago) link
The best song on the album is down at number five. Isn't it ironic?
― Geir Hongro, Thursday, 10 January 2008 09:33 (sixteen years ago) link
I'm unpleasantly surprised by all this Alanis hate. She's written some great songs.
And as good as this album is, the second one is even better.
― Matt Armstrong, Thursday, 10 January 2008 10:34 (sixteen years ago) link
irony <> fibbing.
― Mark G, Thursday, 10 January 2008 10:36 (sixteen years ago) link
justice is served
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Thursday, 10 January 2008 19:04 (sixteen years ago) link
really?? the second one??
― Surmounter, Thursday, 10 January 2008 19:09 (sixteen years ago) link
Yeah, SFIJ is great.
― Matt Armstrong, Friday, 11 January 2008 01:37 (sixteen years ago) link
alanis' second record unfortunately has a title that turned me off ever giving it a chance
― Charlie Howard, Friday, 11 January 2008 05:08 (sixteen years ago) link
I grew to like "Thank U" but don't remember one single thing off the rest of this record, despite owning it. So I vote "Thank U" in the surely-never-to-happen SFIJ poll.
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Friday, 11 January 2008 05:23 (sixteen years ago) link
I'm glad they blurred out Alanis's naked body in that video. If they hadn't, lunches would have been lost across America.
― Bo Jackson Overdrive, Friday, 11 January 2008 05:24 (sixteen years ago) link
cuz I'm Lucas with the lid off.....
― Bo Jackson Overdrive, Friday, 11 January 2008 05:25 (sixteen years ago) link
yeah the decision to blur out the naked woman's body was in no way forced by television executives but was totally made by alanis's people so props to them cuz it totally could have gone on air full frontal and what a disaster that would have been.
― J0rdan S., Friday, 11 January 2008 05:26 (sixteen years ago) link
you thought janet jackson was bad?!
anybody remember that MTV commercial back around that time with that black dude that's driving through and sees Alanis (actually a goofy looking actress pretending to be Alanis) singing the song and he says something like "ahh hell no" and at the end tells her to put some clothes on or something.
― Bo Jackson Overdrive, Friday, 11 January 2008 05:30 (sixteen years ago) link
Holy shit!
Also, holy shit is the harmonica soolo on that song hilarious or what?
― Whiney G. Weingarten, Friday, 11 January 2008 05:46 (sixteen years ago) link
The reaction to SFIJ was really bizarre and annoying. Essentially, people hated the Thank U video (or thought it was stupid), and then didn't bother to notice that all the other singles (and their videos!) were awesome. Thank U got huge airplay on MTV, and then the rest of the videos got ignored (this was back when MTV affected the music business).
― Matt Armstrong, Friday, 11 January 2008 07:11 (sixteen years ago) link
haha this poll is so otm. i remember these singles coming out so long after each other i thought they were from separate albums? (lol 15).
some girl from my mormon religious association played 'you oughta know' at a ward dance! so shocking at the time ('f' word and all!) i really ought to find her and give her a post-hoc congrats. it's a great song as is everything else that placed. (i never heard anything that didn't cuz i never owned the cd but i sure heard all of those singles.)
― strgn, Friday, 11 January 2008 07:35 (sixteen years ago) link
i'm lost but i'm hopeful baby
― reconstituted pork offal slurry (get bent), Friday, 6 January 2012 00:48 (twelve years ago) link
im broke but im happy
― ╬ (Lamp), Friday, 6 January 2012 01:31 (twelve years ago) link
first time Alex in NYC have ever been aligned.
― lumber up, limbaugh down (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 6 January 2012 01:38 (twelve years ago) link
*and I
― Bo Jackson Overdrive
― Best-Penis (buzza), Friday, 6 January 2012 02:03 (twelve years ago) link
totally never remember posting that but it makes sense...
― frogbs, stills, and nash (Neanderthal), Saturday, 4 February 2012 22:12 (twelve years ago) link
no luv for "perfect"
― teledyldonix, Sunday, 5 February 2012 01:02 (twelve years ago) link
My love for "You Oughta Know" has not dimmed since original poll
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Sunday, 5 February 2012 05:34 (twelve years ago) link