Song #52: Alanis Morissette - Your House (off Jagged Little Pill Acoustic - 2005)
I believe I’ve already mentioned my affinity for creepy girl songs. It’s well-known among my friends that my fondness predates my own songwriting, though not by much. For as long as I’ve been old enough to engage in creepy behavior, I’ve related to other girls through it.
Jagged Little Pill was one of the first albums I remember owning on CD. I think I was in third grade when Ironic was released, and I loved this whole album. Not The Doctor had a fun, hooky chorus. You Oughta Know had curse words. Basically, owning this album made me feel TOTALLY BADASS.
I have always been a lyrical transcriptionist. I filled notebooks and notebooks with lyrics from albums whose liner notes didn’t have them. I continued this trend until grade 11, when I discovered that the internet would do it for me. However, the first song I ever sat down to transcribe? Your House, which was the hidden track off of my version of Jagged Little Pill.
And EFF it’s as tragic as it is creepy. Normally I’m all about the ones that mix naivety and stalkerish nature, or ones that do it as tongue-in-cheek, but Morissette’s is a last desperate attempt to be close to someone she loved. That it will inevitably result in a restraining order is almost not the point. She means no harm, and the events from her point of view are exactly why I love Creepy Girl Songs - it humanizes this compulsive, scary behaviour.
She knows she shouldn’t be breaking+entering (as the pre-chorus tells us), but she gets more and more brazen with each verse. She violates his space (AND his bed AND his den) with her presence, but wants his forgiveness. She learns more than she ever wanted to know, though, when she finds the heartbreaking letter. He’s moved on - long since, probably - and you can actually imagine Alanis’ knees buckling as she reads it. She still longs for his forgiveness, but this time for her emotions instead of her actions.
I was discussing this song with BK after karaoke a few days ago, and he likened it to a more sinister version of Barenaked Ladies’ The Old Apartment. I can see reason for the comparison, but while Steven Page broke in out of idle (and probably alcohol-fueled) curiosity, Alanis’ was pure desperation. For some reason, even eight-year-old Allegra knew the start of a lifelong playlist when she heard it.
