The most brilliant remake of the decade? Alanis Morissette, 'Jagged Little Pill': Sheet Music directions and all Electric Speeds, all Acoustic Speeds

The 1995 electric Jagged Little Pill is the third studio album and first internationally released album released by Canadian singer-songwriter Alanis Morissette. The album was remade for a tenth anniversary Acoustic version.

There are exciting elements to the acoustic version. As a parallel top the electric version, it creates a three-way mirror in the listener’s head. The songs are the same, but he orchestration is toned down, mellowed and made to soothe at times where the original was meant to shock. Sometimes, as you will see below, the speeds are in the same meanemotion range, sometimes not. Here’s what shocked me: every acoustic song, as I could well guess by the measurements, was recorded on an electric sequencing device—in other words, from beginning to end, there is no acceleration or deceleration of the underlying speed of the song. Ah. So what? The same is true for the original Jagged Little Pill. Glenn Ballard, one of the top 10 most influential popular music producers of the last 50 years somehow brings the best out of musicians by literally forcing them to play in strict time.

What makes the greatest musicians? No one knows. My opinion is that the greatest can play on sequencers as this album, and upon listening, dare anyone to say whether the song was recorded live (these were not) or recorded on top of an electronic device. I could not tell—in fact, until the measurements, I had thought Alanis was playing live in the studio wit a band. She may have been—but if she did, they were all playing on top of a sequencer—all standard recording procedure. What is particularly refreshing is the fact that all the speeds are whole numbers—notice how in most songs, there is a spot, or a finger print: 74.3 beats per minute, many songs are literally 74.07 beats per minute—hence the reason you see sites as http://www.bpmdatabase.com plead that if you submit speeds of song, that you “round them off to the whole number” (something which I will not do). So said, as with very few albums---Genesis’ 1990 The Way We Walk is the same—each speed is a pure whole number. This in itself signifies bold, exceptional musicians. Here, Alanis sounds fantastic, and the musicians could not be any better, the orchestration and production are perfect.

Below are the speeds of the indicated in the Hal Leonard sheet music I bought this afternoon at the Colony at 49th and Broadway, the 1995 electric version speed and meanemotion, the 2005 acoustic speed and lastly the meanemotions to the songs on the acoustic version.

Because of the hype over Alanis’s second, third and fourth efforts in making albums, and the disappointments lying therein, this acoustic Jagged Little Pill was underrated. Frankly, many of the speeds we post are more enjoyable than others.

Congratulations on a fantastic album—and we look forward to a new studio album this year from the self described “Canadian-American” musician and actress Alanis Morissette.

Track #1
song title=“All I Really Want”
speed direction, Hal Leonard sheet music=’Moderately’

1995 Electric speed,
meanspeed=93.0 beats per minute
meanemotion=enthusiasm

2005 Acoustic speed,
meanspeed=90.0 beats per minute
meanemotion=enthusiasm


Track #2
song title=“You Oughta Know”
speed direction, Hal Leonard sheet music=’Moderate Rock’

1995 Electric speed,
meanspeed=105.4 beats per minute
meanemotion=natural

2005 Acoustic speed,
meanspeed=91.0 beats per minute
meanemotion=enthusiasm


Track #3
song title=“Perfect”
speed direction, Hal Leonard sheet music=’Smoothly’

1995 Electric speed,
meanspeed=85.0 beats per minute
meanemotion=renewal

2005 Acoustic speed,
meanspeed=77.0 beats per minute
meanemotion=bittersweetness


Track #4
song title=“Hand In My Pocket”
speed direction, Hal Leonard sheet music=’Moderate Rock’

1995 Electric speed,
meanspeed=92.3 beats per minute
meanemotion=enthusiasm

2005 Acoustic speed,
meanspeed=75.0 beats per minute
meanemotion=grace


Track #5
song title=“Right Through You”
speed direction in Hal Leonard sheet music=’Moderate Rock’

1995 Electric speed,
meanspeed=81.5 beats per minute
meanemotion=loneliness

2005 Acoustic speed,
meanspeed=81.0 beats per minute
meanemotion=loneliness

Track #6
song title=“Forgiven”
speed direction, Hal Leonard sheet music=’Moderate Rock’

1995 Electric speed,
meanspeed=80.2 beats per minute
meanemotion=loneliness

2005 Acoustic speed,
meanspeed=75.0 beats per minute
meanemotion=grace


Track #7
song title=“You Learn”
speed direction, Hal Leonard sheet music=’Moderately Fast’

1995 Electric speed,
meanspeed=84.1 beats per minute
meanemotion=loneliness

2005 Acoustic speed,
meanspeed=80.0 beats per minute
meanemotion=loneliness


Track #8
song title=“Head Over Feet”
speed direction, Hal Leonard sheet music=’Moderate Rock’

1995 Electric speed,
meanspeed=80.3 beats per minute
meanemotion=loneliness

2005 Acoustic speed,
meanspeed=80.0 beats per minute
meanemotion=loneliness


Track #9
song title=“Mary Jane”
speed direction, Hal Leonard sheet music=’Moderately’

1995 Electric speed,
meanspeed=99.4 beats per minute
meanemotion=natural

2005 Acoustic speed,

meanspeed=90.0 beats per minute
meanemotion=enthusiasm


Track #10
song title=“Ironic”
speed direction, Hal Leonard sheet music=’Moderate Rock’

1995 Electric speed,
meanspeed=85.3 beats per minute
meanemotion=renewal

2005 Acoustic speed,
meanspeed=80.0 beats per minute
meanemotion=loneliness


Track #11
song title=“Not The Doctor”
speed direction, Hal Leonard sheet music=’Moderately’

1995 Electric speed,
meanspeed=89.4 beats per minute
meanemotion=renewal

2005 Acoustiic,

meanspeed=82.0 beats per minute
meanemotion=loneliness


Track #12
song title=“Wake Up”
speed direction, Hal Leonard sheet music=’Moderate Rock’

1995 Electric speed,
meanspeed=95.4 beats per minute, as a waltz
meanemotion=enthusiasm

2005 Acoustic speed,
meanspeed=88.0 beats per minute
meanemotion=renewal

Track #13
song title=“Your House” (Hidden Track)

2005 (Acoustic only)
meanspeed=73.0 beats per minute
meanemotion=grace

Ian Schneider
February 21, 2007
http://meanspeed.com