Essentially a track-by-track re-recording of the original album (including the hidden track ‘Your House’) Jagged Little Pill Acoustic finds the former angry, angsty and (seemingly) permanently depressed chanteuse a good deal more at peace with herself – and all the better for it!
For one thing, her voice these days is a lot less histrionic and shrill than it used to be (“My voice has changed in a way that I’m just loving,” she said recently).
Surprisingly, too, most of the songs benefit from the new, pared-down arrangements. For instance, ‘Hand In My Pocket’ is slowed down in tempo and more restrained vocally while ‘You Learn’ comes across as more emotionally grounded.
Even ‘Ironic’ – the biggest hit from the original album – is warmer and mellower and ‘Mary Jane’ boasts a tenderness largely absent from the original. It’s quite astonishing to discover just how many of these songs are so firmly embedded in the brain – ‘Head Over Feet’ you might not know from the title but the tune is instantly recognisable.
A worthwhile exercise then and a nice companion to the original. However, you can’t help thinking that revisiting her finest hour is a tacit acknowledgement that she hasn’t come up with anything nearly as good in the intervening years.