Alanis Morissette began really popular when I was a freshman at the Coast Guard Academy — the year where, as a "swab," I wasn't allowed to listen to music. For real.
So when I finally reached the summer in between my Swab Year and sophomore year, I started listening to her debut album and began to understand why all of my friends who weren't at the Academy would discuss why the song "Ironic" didn't really address ironies rather than coincidences. There was a fierceness and voice that attracted me to her music, thiough, and when her second album, "Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie" came out, I was quick to buy it. It is still a great and epic album, with a lot of chances taken by her that paid off. Not every song connects, but when they do, it is something of beauty.
By that time, I was assigned to my first ship because I had graduated from the Academy, and I bought the album right before a two-week mission that was grueling and taxing. When we reached our home port, on my drive home I put this album into my car's CD player and went to Taco Bell and binge-ate. (Food on the ship was actually good, but I needed some of the classic bean burritos that remain the Cadillac of food choices at the eatery.)
One of the best, and most powerful songs on the album was "Joining You," a document on why suicide isn't a solution:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7ocWNhVOLA
Here is her "MYV Unplugged" version, which pales in comparison: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvrWFTatuRE&feature=related
And here is a live version, from Woodstock: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kSvtMCrfvE&feature=related
