BITTER 'PILL'

Spiteful and seething, Alanis Morissette's ''You Oughta Know'' turns jealous bile into something worth hearing. Over a throbbing-gristle beat that grabs your collar and rips it off, the Canadian newcomer unleashes her rage at a lover who dumped her for another, threatening to disrupt dinner and taunting him: ''Everytime I scratch my nails down someone else's back,'' she rasps, ''I hope you feel it.''

The rest of Morissette's touted U.S. debut album, JAGGED LITTLE PILL (Maverick/Reprise), is much harder to swallow. 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. And what lines: In her songs, men take her for granted and mentally abuse her, and she retaliates by threatening to leave one of her exes' names off her album credits (talk about a career-minded individual). Morissette needs to make new friends. C+

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