The Good: None of these appear on any other albums . . .
The Bad: The same song, remixed eight times, Nothing original or cool.
The Basics: And unfortunately bad single, “Stand” is a remix album of a single Jewel song by a bunch of very unoriginal producers and d.j.s.
Remember how Jewel got her start? I do, too. She was a kind of new hippie in the post-grunge era and she resonated with teenagers and pre-teens for her melodramatic, romantic lyrics. I was in college at the time her second album was released and a few years, back I immersed myself in her works to try to truly understand her and her niche. So, when I encountered her single for her song “Stand,” I had a pretty good idea what to expect.
It stinks.
I know, we want sophisticated analysis, but sometimes, cutting through the b.s. to the chase is appropriate. “Stand” is a maxi single which includes 8 remixes of Jewel’s radio single “Stand.” This song was from what is widely regarded as Jewel’s sell-out album, when she went from making sappy pop love ballads to inane dance-pop tracks that couched any sense of social statement in a ridiculous rhyme scheme and synth accompaniment. For those looking just for the song “Stand” that they might have heard on the radio, it is not here. Instead, this is just a collection of eight remixes of Jewel’s song.
For the life of me, I cannot figure out why anyone would want this c.d. It is repetitive, over-produced and is not a true indicator of any of Jewel’s talents. The reason for this is simple. Jewel wrote and performed the original song. These remixes, though, are all in the hands of different producers. They took Jewel’s original vocals and reproduced the dance sounds, looped her vocals and created longer, more dance-oriented versions of her song.
Jewel’s song “Stand” is not bad in theory. She has a statement to make on American society and the hypocrisies there. Unfortunately, she does so with rhymes like “Walk in a corner shop / See a shoplifting cop / See the old lady with a gun / See the hero try to run / Nothing's what it seems, I mean / It's not all dirty, but it's not all clean / There's children paying bills / There's monks buying thrills / There's pride for sale in magazines / There's pills for rent to make you clean” which are just obvious and unfortunately banal. This was, frankly, never Jewel’s best song.
Unfortunately for listeners of the Maxi single, producers and d.j.s like Mike Rizzo, Boris & Beck and Markus Schulz simply make longer, more synth and drum-machine-driven mixes of the song which do not enhance the underlying lack of quality to the original song. In fact, they make it worse. Take, for example, the Bastone & Burnz Brum N Bass mix, remix. This is a longer version of an earlier mix on the single, where the synths are lowered, the drum machine is turned up and there are virtually endless echoing loops of Jewel saying “take a stand” out of context. This is long, tiresome and closes the album with a diluted sense of social statement that the song was already wishy-washy on.
Listening to the maxi-single of “Stand” makes me feel sweaty because this is exactly the type of mindless dance music that clubs are known for and the pounding bass that resonates from track to track just makes me feel like I am listening to some dumb mind-control type experiment. The fact that none of the d.j.s or producers try something truly different with the track which was already a dance track makes the expense of this single insulting to music listeners who want something truly original or aurally interesting.
For other Jewel albums, be sure to visit my reviews of:
Pieces Of You
Spirit
Joy: A Holiday Celebration
This Way
0304
0/10
Check out all the music that was better than this single by visiting my Music Review Index Page where the reviews are organized best to worst!
© 2012, 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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