NASHVILLE |ALANIS MORISSETTE
TO RECORD NEW ACOUSTIC VERSION OF
‘JAGGED LITTLE PILL’
CELEBRATING THE ALBUM’S 10TH ANNIVERSARY;
MAVERICK UNIQUELY COLLABORATES WITH STARBUCKS
TO EXCLUSIVELY DISTRIBUTE ALBUM DURING SPECIAL ACOUSTIC JUNE/JULY TOUR
On June 13, 1995, an album was released that would set off a sonic boom in the music world and pop culture: ALANIS MORISSETTE’s JAGGED LITTLE PILL.
To mark the 10th diamond anniversary of the critically acclaimed groundbreaking album that produced such global hits as “You Oughta Know,” “Ironic,” “Hand In My Pocket,” “You Learn” and “Head Over Feet,” ALANIS will re-team with the album’s producer and co-composer Glen Ballard–for the first time since 1998’s Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie–to record an acoustic version of JAGGED LITTLE PILL. All the songs of this acoustic version of JAGGED LITTLE PILL–to be released June 13, 2005, ten years to the date of the original recording’s release–will appear in the same order as they did on the original album, including the hidden track “Your House.” The package will include special footage from that era plus other bonus features.
For the acoustic JAGGED LITTLE PILL, Maverick has uniquely collaborated with Starbucks Hear Music™, which will exclusively distribute the album in Starbucks Company-operated stores in North America, beginning on the day of its release, for a period of six weeks, after which it will also be sold at traditional retail outlets.
ALANIS will also embark on her first acoustic tour–the “Diamond Wink” Jagged Little Pill Acoustic Tour–that will visit intimate venues in North America during June and July (dates TBA) backed by her current touring band. It is in this acoustic setting where ALANIS’ vocal intensity brings her lyrics to a new dimension.
“I was in survival mode when JAGGED LITTLE PILL came out,” says ALANIS. “I am able now, with a little distance, to appreciate it and have some objectivity. I love this record and am warmed by the thought of tipping my hat to it ten years later.”
ALANIS, who has spent the last decade evolving as a singer, songwriter and musician, says she “will re-interpret the songs in ways that have developed in my touring and acoustic shows over the past ten years.”
According to Ballard, “the songs from JAGGED LITTLE PILL were written and recorded in a trance, and now the opportunity for us to revisit these songs a decade later is both a treat and an act of discovery.” Looking forward to re-working the songs, he says: “It’s a frolic for us to honor these songs with new arrangements, in a more deliberately acoustic way, and to rediscover the astonishing power of what we captured in that time and place.”
JAGGED LITTLE PILL is recognized as the best-selling debut by a female solo artist, having sold over 30 million copies worldwide, including 14 million in the U.S. Hailed as “Album of the Decade” by Billboard magazine, JAGGED LITTLE PILL resonated deeply with listeners, revealing a talented young artist with a powerful voice and challenging vision.
The album’s monumental success earned ALANIS four GRAMMYÒ awards: Album of the Year, Best Female Rock Vocal Performance (“You Oughta Know”), Best Rock Song (“You Oughta Know”) and Best Rock Album. At 21, she became the youngest artist to win the “Album of the Year” category.
“At the GRAMMYsÒ, the way Alanis presented herself reminded me of women of the ‘60s–those hip women who had this luminous, centered quality that’s completely gone,” noted essayist Camille Paglia of ALANIS’ stripped-down GRAMMYÒ performance of “You Oughta Know” backed by a string section (Entertainment Weekly, March 15, 1996). And backstage at the 1996 GRAMMYÒ Awards, Annie Lennox said of ALANIS: “She’s stunning–really creative and intensely gifted. She looks like she won’t let this industry ruin her” (USA Today, February 29, 1996).
ALANIS’ success kept her on the road for an 18-month world tour between 1995 and 1996 that started in clubs and ended in arenas. “I feel like these songs are pieces of Alanis’ soul,” says Ballard, “and so emotionally honest and disarming that they are incandescent indefinitely. I’m honored and thrilled to be part of this celebration. While this album will be a companion piece to the original, it’s a new generation of these songs that will have a life of its own, equally spirited as the original.”
Here’s a sample of the critical accolades that ALANIS generated with
JAGGED LITTLE PILL:
“In rock, as in politics, there’s nothing more powerful than an idea whose time as come–and Morissette is an artist whose time has surely come…She’s an artist with enough vocal command, songwriting craft, and mainstream instincts to spread that exploration to a wider pop-rock audience.”
–Robert Hilburn, Los Angeles Times, 1995
“The songs on Jagged Little Pill are tales of a young woman determined to make her own way, inventing herself as she leaves behind childhood indoctrination, manipulative lovers, sleazy business associates and, finally, her own self-doubt.”
–Jon Pareles, New York Times, 1995
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About Starbucks Hear Music
Founded in 1990, and acquired by Starbucks Coffee Company in 1999, Starbucks Hear Music is the voice of music at Starbucks. Starbucks Hear Music is dedicated to creating a new and convenient way for consumers to discover, experience and acquire all genres of great music through its unique editorial voice, CD compilations, and music programming for Starbucks coffeehouses worldwide, as well as its innovative partnerships with other music labels to produce, market and distribute both exclusive and non-exclusive music. In 2004, Starbucks Hear Music launched a 24-hour digital music channel with XM Satellite Radio (XM Channel 75), the Starbucks Hear MusicÔ Coffeehouse in Santa Monica where customers can select from over 15,000 CDs or burn their own custom mixes, and the Starbucks Hear MusicÔ media bars, a service that offers custom CD burning at select Starbucks retail locations in Seattle and Austin. Starbucks Hear Music CDs are featured at Hear Music and Starbucks retail locations, as well as www.starbucks.com and www.hearmusic.com.
Contacts:
Alanis Morissette Starbucks Entertainment
MSO Emily Glassman
818-380-0400 206.318.7933
Mitch Schneider (ext 235) emily.glassman@starbucks.com
Marcee Rondan (ext. 248)
Lathum Nelson (ext. 227)
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