CD Reviews: Alanis Morissette, Damien Rice

CD Reviews: Alanis Morissette, Damien Rice

Alanis Morissette 'Jagged Little Pill Acoustic': Aidin Vaziri | It feels so different now. When Alanis Morissette first released "Jagged Little Pill" -- the biggest-selling album by a female artist ever -- it was a revelation. She sang frankly about indulging some unnamed lover with oral sex in a movie theater; she crammed entire chapters from her angry and bruised diary into vitriolic three-minute rock songs; she blatantly misused the word "Ironic." If it weren't for that crazy yodel that made her sing "rain" like "rah-yay-eee-ain," the 1995 release probably would have sold way more than 30 million copies. But it's almost impossible to hear the songs the same way now, and not because she is marking the 10th anniversary of the album's release by stripping away the electric guitars and looped drums, resuscitating all-too-familiar songs like "Hand in My Pocket" and "Forgiven" with tasteful flourishes of flamenco guitars and maracas. No, it's because a few years ago it became fairly well known that most of the songs were written after the fallout of her relationship with actor Dave Coulier. Yes, you do -- he played Uncle Joey on '80s television hit "Full House," and more recently he was a cast member on "The Surreal Life." The guy who did the Bullwinkle impressions and made scissors with his fingers when he said, "Cut. It. Out." She got all worked up over him? She wrote these songs for the guy who was upstaged by Bob Saget on a weekly basis? The one with the mullet? It really makes this "Pill" that much harder to swallow.

Damien Rice 'Unplayed Piano': Aidin Vaziri | This isn't the long-awaited follow-up to Damien Rice's heart-cracking 2003 release, "O," but rather an iTunes-only single written to expose the plight of Burmese political activist and piano player Aung San Suu Kyi, the world's only imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize recipient. The sad state of global affairs aside, the song itself is staggering -- a windswept duet with musical partner Lisa Hannigan that begins with a deceptively gorgeous melody before delivering the operatic kicker, "Unplayed pianos/ are often by a window/ in a room where nobody loved goes." The Irish songwriter is operating at his gut-wrenching best and -- after that liaison with Renee Zellweger and lousy disc of B-sides -- proving he hasn't completely lost the plot.