The song was written with a different instrumentation; the pair were then asked to re-write the music – something Navarro described as being "A lot like a remix ...

"[23] The first song to be shown to A&R and record company people was "Perfect", with a simple arrangement containing only Morissette's vocals and Ballard's acoustic guitar.

In December 1994, the duo took the demos to a studio and began working on full band arrangements for 5 songs: "You Oughta Know", "Right Through You", "Forgiven", "Wake Up" and "Mary Jane".

By January 1995, having been passed over by many labels, Ballard was considering an independent release before Morissette's lawyer Ken Hertz arranged a meeting with Guy Oseary, who worked at A&R for Maverick Records.

Oseary said he got interested in working with Morisette right at the beginning of "Perfect", which he would later describe as "the first time I heard anyone tell stories that way and express themselves in such a manner", and within two days Morissette was signed with the label.

To underscore this transformation and establish herself on the international stage, Morissette adopted her full name professionally, moving beyond her previous single-name moniker "Alanis".

This deliberate change in both musical direction and personal branding signaled a new chapter in her career, setting the stage for her breakthrough international debut.

Morissette stated that during the process of making the album, she was in a bad mental condition after being robbed at gunpoint, suffering from angst and daily panic attacks, and tried to overcome her troubled feelings by expressing her emotions in the lyrics.

"Right Through You" is a grunge song with angry lyrics about sleazy record bosses who prey on female artists who they want to "Wine dine and sixty-nine" rather than actually supporting their musical careers.

"[26] "You Learn" is a mid-tempo self-help rock song, with Morissette giving out advice; "Ditch the fear, open your heart, speak your mind, and when the going gets tough, walk around the house naked.

So the lyric following it is ‘just swallow it down, it feels so good swimming in your stomach’ … so there’s some sort of a payoff, and it may not be right away.”[28] "Head Over Feet" is a ballad that contains guitar and drum box backing, with plainspoken vocals.

[34][35] According to the Oxford English Dictionary "irony" is "a figure of speech in which the intended meaning is the opposite of that expressed by the words used"[36] making lyrics such as "It's like rain on your wedding day" not ironic.

[38] The album cover, featuring photography by John Patrick Salisbury and art direction by Thomas Recchion, combines a picture of Morissette crouched atop a cliff in Malibu, California and another of her face with various shades of red, blue and green, and typewriter-style fonts.

The fourth U.S. single, "Ironic", became Morissette's biggest hit, partly due to the unique music video featuring four identical but differently dressed Alanises driving around in the same car.

[44] She also opened for Neil Young and his band Crazy Horse for several European dates in summer 1996, together with Foo Fighters, Manic Street Preachers and Dodgy.

A two-disc deluxe edition contains a newly remastered version of the album, appended with ten demo recordings, two of which were previously released on the "Joining You" single in 1999.

A limited four-disc collector's edition also adds 2005's Acoustic album and a full live concert recorded in London at Subterranea on September 28, 1995.

Los Angeles Times writer Steve Hochman found that few artists explored "extreme emotional games" as "strikingly" as Morissette, whom he viewed as "a fresh talent—somewhere between, say, Sinéad O'Connor and Liz Phair—who's determined to let her feelings out, whether with a snarl or a smile.

"[51] Anne Ayers of USA Today said that Morissette "compels with mature, assured songcraft and pointed writing",[56] while Philadelphia Inquirer critic Tom Moon described her as "wise beyond her years, determined to expose the hypocrisy she encounters at every turn.

"[53] The Village Voice's Robert Christgau wrote that Morissette is "happy to help 15 million girls of many ages stick a basic feminist truth in our faces: privileged phonies have identity problems too.

"[49] In a retrospective review, Stephen Thomas Erlewine from AllMusic highlighted the intensely personal nature of Morissette's lyrics and found it "remarkable" that the album "struck a sympathetic chord with millions of listeners, because it's so doggedly, determinedly insular."

Erlewine concludes, "As slick as the music is, the lyrics are unvarnished and Morissette unflinchingly explores emotions so common, most people would be ashamed to articulate them.

David Browne of Entertainment Weekly was intrigued by "You Oughta Know" but found the rest of Jagged Little Pill "much harder to swallow", continuing, "What sounds arresting on a single grows wearing over a full album.

Producer-co-songwriter Glen Ballard's arrangements are clunky mixtures of alternative mood music and hammy arena rock, and the 21-year-old Morissette tends to wildly oversing every other line.

[48] When listing the album at 45 on the "100 Best Albums of the Nineties", Rolling Stone commented: "Jagged Little Pill is like a Nineties version of Carole King's Tapestry: 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".

[73][88] Morissette's success with Jagged Little Pill was credited with leading to the introduction of female singers such as Fiona Apple,[89] Shakira, Tracy Bonham, Meredith Brooks, and in the early 2000s, Pink, Michelle Branch, and fellow Canadian Avril Lavigne.

[90] American singer Katy Perry cites Jagged Little Pill as a significant musical inspiration, and opted to work with Morissette's frequent collaborator Ballard as a result.

[94] Benny Anderson of ABBA listed the album as one of the 6 soundtracks of his life: "I listened to this a lot when it came out, at a time when I wasn't writing pop songs any more.

[104] Jagged Little Pill began a limited run of performances opening May 5, 2018, at the Loeb Drama Center, within the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts, closing July 15, 2018.

[105] Notable casting for the show included Elizabeth Stanley as Mary Jane,[106] Derek Klena as Nick,[107] Lauren Patten as Jo,[107] Sean Allan Krill as Steve[107] and Celia Gooding as Frankie.