Music Review: Alanis Morissette "All I Really Want"

Alanis Morissette

All I Really Want

Album: Jagged Little Pill

Year: 1997

           Alanis Morissette wants all the answers to her life in the questioning  “All I Really Want.”

              A disaffected guitar opens the single, setting a hardened tone.  Her boyfriend is tapping his hands on the counter and biting his lip. She asks him if she’s exhausting for him. She adds she has a lot on her mind and wasn’t paying attention. It was exactly what he thought. She tells him she just needs to know. She doesn’t mean to examine every part of his being. It’s just who she is. Then, she starts all over again. Her boyfriend tells her he needs a break and she apologizes. (“Do I stress you out?/My sweater is on backwards and inside out/And you say, "How appropriate"/I don't dissect everything today/I don't mean to pick you apart you see/But I can't help it/And there I go jumping before the gunshot has gone off/Slap me with a splintered ruler/And it would knock me to the floor if I wasn't there already/If only I could hunt the hunter.”)

                In the chorus, she wants her head to be quiet for a moment. (“And all I really want is some patience/A way to calm the angry voice/And all I really want is deliverance.”)

                   She tells her boyfriend she doesn’t want to be alone. She wants him to talk to her. But not about the weather or work. She wants him to really talk about the deeper things in life. It bothers her that he doesn’t seem to care like her. She sees a world becoming more cruel with each passing day. She wants to learn about religion and every god. (“Do I wear you out?/You must wonder why I'm relentless and all strung out/I'm consumed by the chill of solitary/I'm like Estella/I like to reel it in and then spit it out/I'm frustrated by your apathy/And I am frightened by the corrupted ways of this land/If only I could meet the maker/And I am fascinated by the spiritual man/I am humbled by his humble nature, ya.”)

              In the second chorus, she says she hasn’t met the one person who has to yet to intellectually satsify her and understand what she feels. (“And what I wouldn't give to find a soul mate?/Someone else to catch this drift/And what I wouldn't give to meet a kindred?”)

                 In the bridge, she wants to know more about him. What makes him tick? Why does he have to fill every minute with something to do? Why won’t he just sit and think? She stays quiet for a moment and asks him what crossed his mind. (“Enough about me, let's talk about you for a minute/Enough about you, let's talk about life for a while/The conflicts, the craziness/And the sound of pretenses is falling/All around, all around/Why are you so petrified of silence?/Here can you handle this?/Did you think about your bills, you ex, your deadlines/Or when you think you're going to die?/Or did you long for the next distraction?”)

                  In the final chrous, she wants to have a serious conversation with someone about life. Life is moving to fast and she wishes she could make it stop. She wants to stop the restlessness she feels every day. She wants to stop living within the greys and finding something other than being on the other end of the extreme. She doesn’t want to be trapped. (“And all I need now is intellectual intercourse/A soul to dig the hole much deeper/And I have no concept of time other than it is flying/If only I could kill the killer/And all I really want is some peace man/A place to find a common ground/And all I really want is a wavelength/And all I really want is some comfort/A way to get my hands untied/And all I really want is some justice/Because all I really want is some patience/And all I really want is deliverance/A place to find a common ground/And all I really want is some justice.”)

                    Morissette howls and kicks, pushing aside what doesn’t meet her needs.

Unlike her previous singles, there isn’t any deep-seated anger. It’s a need for something more driving her. It is a rant but she’s tired of being safe and comfortable.

                 The intense   “All I Really Want”  isn’t afraid to ask tough questions or make the hard choices.