Alanis Morissette has one of those sounds that you can’t plan or design or engineer, it just has to come authentically from of a talented artist. There’s a specifie attitude at play, and there’s a lot of influence from the mostly ending grunge movement of 1995 and her previous poppier works, but there’s also true creation here, something that sounds totally original to me. And the best part for Alanis is that it also happens to scratch that undefinable pop itch, with endlessly singable number one bangers that will probably last forever.

If you listened to this album in a vacuum with no awareness of the charts or Alanis’ former electropop songs, you could reasonably argue it’s part of any number of different genres - rock, grunge, pure pop, alt rock. It’s the kind of album that seemingly hundreds of disparate artists can and should credit for inspiration. It’s angry in a self-aware way, poetic in a straightforward way, as oxymoronic at times as any of the dozen contrasting examples in “Hand In My Pocket” or “Ironic”

Also, cheers to a yodel that’s not overused - that’s refreshing after listening to Chappell Roan’s album recently where she sprinkles little yodels on every other syllable like a high school student using a new favorite word fifty times in an essay.

From the roundup Jamwise #48 - Best Albums of 1995.