In Right Through You, she sarcastically addresses a “ Mr Man” who made her a “ back-loaded puppet”:
Many of the songs present an embittered but empowered Morissette who wryly recounts her experiences against past lovers and overtly sexist record executives. Jagged Little Pill sees Morissette covering darker topics, partly a result of this newfound safety and freedom she received in Ballard. “I think as we started writing more and more songs together, I just thought, ‘Oh, this is an invitation, this is complete freedom for me to be who I am yet at the same time feel safe’”, she told CBC. In Ballard, Alanis found someone who was willing to explore whatever idea she liked, and wasn’t concerned that she didn’t have a record deal. All of the vocal performances on Jagged Little Pill are from the first or second takes, Ballard told CBC, “Because she did not ever, ever get neurotic about vocals. Working quickly was both the product of – and a contributing factor to – a self-confidence that informs Morissette’s lyrics and vocal performances. “Our ritual was such that we would just get together, maybe at noon, we’d go to lunch, we’d have some conversation, some philosophical conversation about whatever the topic was that day, and then we would go into the studio and often the song would be about that topic.” Working quickly and effectively came to be the method for shaping the rest of the songs on Jagged Little Pill, which were frequently written and recorded within the same day. On the day the two first met, as Ballard told CBC, they immediately began working on a song (which doesn’t appear on the album) called No Avalon, with Morissette even helping rebuild the studio after it was damaged six weeks earlier in an earthquake. Although Morissette had no guarantee of a record deal, Ballard agreed to work with her simply because the collaboration proved so fruitful.