Music I’m Close To: Jagged Little Pill

I think I first heard Hand in My Pocket in 2009, just when I was about to travel to Dhulikhel for my undergraduates. Over the next four years, I fell in love with the album and in turn, it provided me a soundtrack to some of the toughest struggles with my anxiety. If nothing worked, this album, on a loop, until four the morning would put a smile on my face and put me to sleep.

Later, after Dhulikhel was over, and I gradually got to the ‘better place’ with my mental health, I went back to the album when I had to cheer myself up after a bad week. And it always worked. Hand in My Pocket, You Learn, Ironic, Perfect, Forgiven have always stayed with me and were my soundtracks to empathy, self-care, joy and sadness.

These are songs all written with so much empathy to the self and unflinching exploration of emotional distress that is so common and yet so stigmatized that it forces you to be honest with yourself.

A lot has been said about Jagged Little Pill, but my favorite bit is this:

Jagged Little Pill is ……..“a woman using her plain soft-rock voice to sift through the emotional wreckage of her youth, with enough heart and songcraft to make countless listeners feel the earth move.”

I’m spending this weekend with the Jagged Little Pill. Try it. You can start off with You Learn.

Take care. 💙💚💞