filtercore (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} filtercore) wrote,@ 2008-12-07 18:53:00 |
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Embarassed Little Pill
The first gig I ever saw of my own initiative was Alanis Morissette at age 15. My old man drove me up to Melbourne from Torquay and, like a hero, aimlessly drove around the venue for hours until I was done. Boyo, was I obsessed with Alanis back in the day.
She was probably my introduction to the world of non-top-40 music. She was popular, but had an edge to her that made me grasp for more (you may very well roll your eyes nowadays, but come on, she was screaming about going down on dudes in a cinema with authenticity! Plus, Flea was playing bass on that album!) I'm pretty sure that album helped me to begin exploring artists on my own, rather than have them fed to me via Ugly Phil's Hot 30. I wore out three original copies of Jagged Little Pill on cassette by way of listening to it around five times daily (no joke).
I guess she was completely compatible with my repressed-homo angst - I could interpret ANY lryics back then to make sense to my agony (what teen can't with open-ended lyrics?) Just retrospectively read the nonsense of Bush lyrics (eg: "drinking kitchen paint to dye the winter I hope we'll never see again") and consider I could apply that as crystal-clear insight to my own life, and you'll get some sort of idea. But Alanis had a particular broken pain in her voice which granted some sincerity.
Now, it's totally okay to write these kinds of albums off as you grow older - but it holds a particular point of fondness for me. It strongly represents a particular point of change in my life. (Granted, I began wearing a goffik cape shortly afterwards and moaned along to NIN, but it still helped me along).
So I'm embarassingly fascinated with Jagged Little Pill Acoustic, the perhaps-little-known revisitation of Alanis' breakthrough album which was released a couple of years back. The songs are more or less intact, and the lyrics haven't been fiddled with at all - but it's simply amazing to hear one of my life's most important albums (shut up! I was an angsty teenager!) recomposed ten years on from the original release date. I acknowledge that a lot of it's to do with me knowing the album inside out, but it's simply amazing to hear subtle changes in each song that totally change the interpretation of the songs... I feel like she hints at a reconsidered attitude to many parts of her life with the benefit of time, simply through the difference in her tone in voice.
Maybe it's me getting older and getting a little more nostalgic, but I'd love to hear more of my favourite bands revisit their classic albums and reinterpret them like this. I think I'd especially like to hear them rewrite the lyrics to update them. My current favourite band, Biffy Clyro, have a habit of twisting lyrics around to their popular songs on the fly at gigs depending on their mood, and it's awesome. They also have fascinating self-referential lyrical links between their songs across many albums - I'd normally consider it pretentious, but they pull it off so well.
Anyway, never thought I'd be uttering this many years on, but kudos to you, Alanis. I think I'd see you live out of some sorta respect if you ever visit Australia again.
And secretly, I love everything Diana Anaid does to this day because she reminds me of my teen angst - I just try to hide it a little more ;-)
What classic albums would you like to see your favourite artists update for today? In what way? Or do you disagree completely?
PS: As you may have noticed, I've been posting more often at my proper blog since I reanimated it, so I'm not entirely sure what place my LJ has nowadays. I guess the more embarassing, personal posts like these. :-)
The first gig I ever saw of my own initiative was Alanis Morissette at age 15. My old man drove me up to Melbourne from Torquay and, like a hero, aimlessly drove around the venue for hours until I was done. Boyo, was I obsessed with Alanis back in the day.
She was probably my introduction to the world of non-top-40 music. She was popular, but had an edge to her that made me grasp for more (you may very well roll your eyes nowadays, but come on, she was screaming about going down on dudes in a cinema with authenticity! Plus, Flea was playing bass on that album!) I'm pretty sure that album helped me to begin exploring artists on my own, rather than have them fed to me via Ugly Phil's Hot 30. I wore out three original copies of Jagged Little Pill on cassette by way of listening to it around five times daily (no joke).
I guess she was completely compatible with my repressed-homo angst - I could interpret ANY lryics back then to make sense to my agony (what teen can't with open-ended lyrics?) Just retrospectively read the nonsense of Bush lyrics (eg: "drinking kitchen paint to dye the winter I hope we'll never see again") and consider I could apply that as crystal-clear insight to my own life, and you'll get some sort of idea. But Alanis had a particular broken pain in her voice which granted some sincerity.
Now, it's totally okay to write these kinds of albums off as you grow older - but it holds a particular point of fondness for me. It strongly represents a particular point of change in my life. (Granted, I began wearing a goffik cape shortly afterwards and moaned along to NIN, but it still helped me along).
So I'm embarassingly fascinated with Jagged Little Pill Acoustic, the perhaps-little-known revisitation of Alanis' breakthrough album which was released a couple of years back. The songs are more or less intact, and the lyrics haven't been fiddled with at all - but it's simply amazing to hear one of my life's most important albums (shut up! I was an angsty teenager!) recomposed ten years on from the original release date. I acknowledge that a lot of it's to do with me knowing the album inside out, but it's simply amazing to hear subtle changes in each song that totally change the interpretation of the songs... I feel like she hints at a reconsidered attitude to many parts of her life with the benefit of time, simply through the difference in her tone in voice.
Maybe it's me getting older and getting a little more nostalgic, but I'd love to hear more of my favourite bands revisit their classic albums and reinterpret them like this. I think I'd especially like to hear them rewrite the lyrics to update them. My current favourite band, Biffy Clyro, have a habit of twisting lyrics around to their popular songs on the fly at gigs depending on their mood, and it's awesome. They also have fascinating self-referential lyrical links between their songs across many albums - I'd normally consider it pretentious, but they pull it off so well.
Anyway, never thought I'd be uttering this many years on, but kudos to you, Alanis. I think I'd see you live out of some sorta respect if you ever visit Australia again.
And secretly, I love everything Diana Anaid does to this day because she reminds me of my teen angst - I just try to hide it a little more ;-)
What classic albums would you like to see your favourite artists update for today? In what way? Or do you disagree completely?
PS: As you may have noticed, I've been posting more often at my proper blog since I reanimated it, so I'm not entirely sure what place my LJ has nowadays. I guess the more embarassing, personal posts like these. :-)
