It’s 30 years since the album Jagged Little Pill seared itself into the public consciousness and turned its creator Alanis Morissette into a household name.
This was the third studio album from Canadian-born Morissette, but it’s perceived by some as her debut as it was the first to be released internationally and it marked a major stylistic shift, from the dance pop strains of her first two releases Alanis (1991) and Now Is The Time (1992) to a hefty, hook-laden alt-rock sound.
Jagged Little Pill was a massive global hit, earning the 21-year-old Morissette five Grammys, including Album Of The Year, and going on to hit No. 1 in 13 countries. The album produced six singles — and it was the third of these, Ironic, that would become her biggest hit.
This was the song that really galvanised Morissette’s burgeoning success and became the biggest single of her career.
In the process, it turned Morissette into a mid-90s rock/pop phenomenon.
Alanis Morisette got her first taste of fame in 1986 when she appeared on the Canadian comic sketch show You Can’t Do That at the age of 12.
One year later, she recorded her first demo, a self-penned song called Fate Stay With Me, and in August 1989, a second demo was sent to Geffen Records, although this was allegedly lost when the label’s headquarters were burgled in October that year.
Her fortunes improved significantly in 1991, when she signed with MCA Records (Canada) and released her debut album Alanis, co-written with producer Lindsay Thomas Morgan and recorded in Toronto.
The album reached the top 20 in Canada, and Morissette’s sound and distinctive hairstyle led to her being known as the Debbie Gibson of Canada.
Second album Now Is The Time was a ballad-driven record, but it was a commercial failure, selling just over half the number of copies as her first album. Morissette’s contract was not renewed and she was left without a major label deal.
At this point, she put changes in place that would radically transform her fortunes.
In 1993, her publisher introduced her to manager Scott Welch, and one year later she moved from Ottawa to Los Angeles, where she met producer and songwriter Glen Ballard.
Morissette and Ballard gelled immediately.
Ballard recognised Morissette’s talent and supported her emerging new style and sound rather than trying to shape or change it.
Unencumbered by the demands of a major label, Morissette had free creative rein and in early 1994, she and Ballard set about writing songs that would collectively become the Jagged Little Pill album.
Ironic was the third song that Morissette and Ballard wrote together. They composed it on 26 May, 1994, at Ballad’s Encino-based home studio in LA.
In a Spotify Landmark session in 2015, Morissette and Ballard recalled the events that helped inspire the track.
“Our process began with lunch at Emilio’s trattoria over chopped salads and iced tea,” Ballard said. “I recall her saying something like, ‘Wouldn’t it be ironic for an old man to win the lottery and die the next day?’.
“We were fresh with this thought when we walked into the studio ten minutes later. This was the beginning of the true magic between us.”
In a 1999 Q magazine feature, Morissette recalled the songwriting session: “It was quite funny, because when Glen and I were in the studio writing it, we were just trying to make each other laugh. We weren't even thinking about ironies at all, which is probably the most ironic thing about the song.”
So prolific were the songwriting sessions that the whole album was reportedly written within 13 days.
The duo aimed to write and record one song a day, in twelve- or sixteen-hour sessions and with minimal overdubbing later.
This was the case with Morissette’s vocals, which were allegedly all done in one or two takes.
When sessions shifted to Signet Sound and Westlake Studios in Hollywood, it was Morissette’s original demo vocal takes that were used.
Another key element in the recording of Ironic and the Jagged LIttle Pill album was engineer Christopher Fogel, who had worked with Nine Inch Nails.
“Glen and Alanis wrote everything between them and they’d help each other,” said Fogel in a feature by Nigel Humberstone in the March 1997 issue of Sound On Sound magazine.
“It was a very good partnership. Sometimes Alanis would get a lyric at two or three in the morning and they'd lay the track down real quick — just the basics: a loop, a couple of passes of guitar, a vocal — and then I would come in and add any embellishments on top of that.
“We'd re‑do some guitars on occasions, but rarely, because most were done in a single pass, and Alanis had grown attached to them. We added real drums to five of the songs, and did organ on all of them.”
Ironic was one of the five songs on the album that featured real drums, played by Rob Ladd, who had toured with former Bangle Susanna Hoffs and would go on to work with Don Henley.
Like most of the songs across the Jagged Little Pill album, Ironic is a song forged by impeccable songwriting craft and strong hooks.
Many of the lyrics seem to stem from a bitter relationship and there is anger and emotional intensity across the album, which is one reason why it made such an acute connection with fans.
By contrast, Ironic stands apart from the other tracks as it is fictionalised, rather than autobiographical. It is also wry by comparison to other songs on the album.
“Mr. Play It Safe was afraid to fly/He packed his suitcase and kissed his kids goodbye/He waited his whole damn life to take that flight/And as the plane crashed down, he thought/‘Well, isn't this nice?’/And isn't it ironic?”
The song’s title and lyrics would come back to haunt Morissette and Ballard.
Almost as soon as it was released, critics were quick to point out that they had misunderstood what the word irony actually meant as almost none of the situations cited in the lyrics were in fact ironic.
Morissette addressed such criticism in a Spotify Landmark session in 2015.
“I've had my ass kicked for 20 years about it being a malapropism,” she said. “I think people had a lot of issues with perhaps my stupidity or Glen's and my lack of caring about being perfect.
“I see words as paint, so I play with them. I use words all the time that don't exist in the dictionary, so for us it was just making each other laugh and making each other think and feel.
“After Ironic, I started writing songs very autobiographically and lyrically on my own.”
Ballard also responded to such criticisms in a Songfacts interview. “I have a degree in English,” he said. “I did my dissertation on T.S. Eliot, so I understand that the way we used irony was a much more conventional use of it and it wasn't technically right, but I think it's wonderful that everybody sort of jumped in on it and wanted to really define it as a literary term.
“So, I'm fine with that. I think it's really funny and I just enjoyed the hell out of it, for sure.”
For a song with such a gargantuan chorus it’s easy to forget that the verses are comparatively gentle and sparse, featuring Ballard’s acoustic strumming and Morissette’s intimate close-to-the-mic vocal performance.
There’s a soulful groove to the song, with Morissette riffing effortlessly on the verses, gliding seamlessly between the lower alto register of her mezzo-soprano voice through to her higher soprano range.
The song opens with some beautifully whimsical ‘hai-hi-hi’ vocal cadences from Morissette over Ballard’s steel-string acoustic strums and picking.
Ten seconds in, the first verse begins. “An old man turned ninety-eight,” begins Morisette, the rich nuances of her vocal timbre enhanced by warm reverb, “He won the lottery and died the next day”.
It takes just 38 seconds for the big chorus to come thumping in, one of those massive loud-quiet contrasts so beloved and pioneered by bands such as the Pixies.
“It’s like rain on your wedding day,” sings Morissette, her voice opening up into a wide and powerful timbre. “It’s a free ride when you’ve already paid.”
Instrumentally, it’s a full-throttle rock sound, with overdriven guitar, densely layered backing vocals and huge kick and snare.
At 1:02 it drops back to the sparse, spacious acoustic groove – albeit with bass and drums – as the second verse begins. And so it goes on.
It’s blissfully simple, yet the whole thing just flies, with a sense of joyous abandon running throughout.
Ironic was released on 27 February 1996 and reached No.1 in Canada, No.4 in the US Billboard Hot 100 and No.11 in the UK Singles Chart. It also made the top ten in the singles charts of ten other countries.
But for all its strengths, Morissette did not rate the song that highly.
“I didn’t even want it on the [album],” she told the Rolling Stone Music Now podcast. “And I remember a lot of people going, ‘Please please, please’. So I said ‘okay’.
“That was one of the first songs we wrote, almost like a demo to get our whistles wet. But people wound up really liking the melody, and I wasn’t that precious about it”.
She expanded on this subject in a Spotify Landmark Edition in 2015. “It was an afterthought song for me. I remember Glen saying I wish Ironic were further up the tracklist but I just didn’t want it on there at all, so I was like ‘You’re lucky it’s on the record at all’.
“I do love it though, you know, and when I perform it there’s such a resonant precious moment with the audience when we start playing that song.”
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