Signs Of Banality: A Poet After The Sellout (Goodbye Alice In Wonderland)

The Good: Decent voice, Occasional lyrics, Decent concept
The Bad: Terrible rhymes, Sugary pop music, Derivative of earlier works
The Basics: With its banal lyrics and produced sound, Goodbye Alice In Wonderland finds Jewel as a pure pop singer, with little appeal to those who want more.


When I was in college, I was working at a department store and I was covering the Electronics Department for the regular worker's lunch break. While I was at the register, two preteen girls came up to purchase c.d.s and one of the c.d.s they had was a Jewel c.d. They began, quite earnestly singing "Foolish Games" to one another and as I rang up their order, listening to them, I realized that these were the anthems of the girls that age and time. And I suppose I sighed because I realized that that music was not mine and I felt like that next generation was being cheated of worthwhile artists.

Jewel, who broke into the mass market with her album Pieces of You, was hailed in her arrival at the outset of the Blonde Revolution as a poet. She was distinguishable from those who came after - Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and Jessica Simpson - as an artist who was writing her own material and outside her music, the general sense of her was that she was a poet. She decided to capitalize on this by putting out a book of her poetry and for a time, it seemed that she was a true artist who was a pop-rock poet on the border of folk. Years later, as the pop market changed, Jewel was suddenly hawking a dance album and those who had called her poet pretty much gave up on her.

Following the dance album, she has released what the liner notes claim is her most autobiographical album yet, with Goodbye Alice In Wonderland. According to the notes in the c.d. case, Jewel wants this to be a concept album where the listener follows her through her experiences, which seems strange if she is beginning with a song called "Again And Again." After all, how may one begin at the beginning with "again?" Actually, the song seems to be the struggle to break out with her music or with a relationship or

Who cares?

I didn't. I sat down to listen to Goodbye Alice In Wonderland and I was not impressed from the opening licks of track one. For those not familiar with my reviews, I love female artists. Most of my collection are singer-songwriters who are true originals. I approached this album hoping to find a poet, an artist, an original, something with music I might enjoy.

Instead, Goodbye Alice In Wonderland is an album that is pretty standard pop-rock, from the sugary school. Jewel's voice is drifty and light throughout. Airy. It lacks substance, gravitas. This does not work for an artist who is trying to sell us on the emotional resonance of such lines as "If you want my heart / You have to promise not to tear it apart / 'Cause my heart / Has been hurt a lot . . " ("Fragile Heart").

So, while Jewel has a decent voice, she is not using it on this album. She has exchanged the groovy depth of "Who Will Save Your Soul" for a light sound that sounds more like the girls of the Blonde Revolution. Jewel's voice is backed up by mediocre music. There is not a single tune on here that pops, that I found myself humming later, that I would remember and call distinctive. Not one out of thirteen.

And the lyrics. Goodbye Alice In Wonderland, (the album) is lyrically weak. In fact, it was on my third listen of the album that I realized that the title track was a jumble of metaphors ("So goodbye Alice in Wonderland / Goodbye Yellow Brick Road . . .") and I was finding myself most enjoying the track I initially thought was pretentious and over conceptualized ("Satellite"). "Satellite" sings of the problems of fitting in in the modern world with all of its complexities and the desire to be healed in a world that is artificial. Thematically, it is bollocks: "We understand a lot of things / About modern technology but not about dreams / Our hearts are on the shelves / We can't fix ourselves . . ." There's a whole industry in the modern world designed around self-help, so the song makes little sense.

The bottom-line, though, is that the writing here is terrible. I winced, literally, at the opening to "Good Day," as Jewel sang/spoke "I say to myself, self / Why are you awake again? It's one a.m. / Standin' with the fridge wide open, starin' . . ." I shudder to cite it. The rhymes are predictable and insipid. There is nothing complicated here.

Jewel may have other albums that are worth listening to, but Goodbye Alice In Wonderland is not one of them. Jewel is a poet in the school of grammar school rhymer and a singer who seems to just want to fit in with the musicians who are selling. This is a disappointment.

The best track is Goodbye Alice In Wonderland, the worst is "Good Day."

For other Jewel works, be sure to visit my reviews of:
Pieces Of You
Spirit
Joy: A Holiday Celebration
This Way
Stand (Single)
0304

3/10

For other music reviews, be sure to check out my Music Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2012, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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“Stand:” Average Once, Insipid 8 Times Dancing.

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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Yes, 0304 Truly Is Jewel's Sellout Album: Inane Dance Themes Gut Jewel's Integrity

The Good: A few catchy beats/lines
The Bad: Music is homogeneously bad, Lyrics are the dumbest Jewel has ever written,Voice is produced over.
The Basics: Repetitive, poorly-written and with music whose sole purpose seems to be getting people to dance (energetically) 0304 truly is Jewel's sellout album and one of the worst albums I've ever heard!


As I near the end of my sojourn through the musical works of Jewel (Jewel Kilcher), I hit the album I openly admit I prejudged based on its first single. When Jewel released her song "Intuition," many of us cringed and judging by how I am the first to review this album after it being on the market for five years, I suspect that cringe went through Jewel's loyal fanbase and rather than negatively review one of her albums, they just hoped people might quietly forget it. Too bad: I suffered through four listens to 0304 (I couldn't even make it to my usual eight!) and if "Intuition" might make the loyal fans of the folk sound of Jewel's pop-rock cringe, the album would positively mortify them.

0304 is, quite simply, a terrible album and not only because Jewel abandons her quiet, girlish poetry in favor of dance beats, much the way Sophie B. Hawkins turned away from her guitar for synths on Wilderness (reviewed here!). No, here the problem is that Jewel abandons any sensibility she has toward any of the initial quality she presented as an artist on her debut Pieces Of You and afterward. In other words, the fundamental problem with 0304 is that Jewel's natural voice is produced over, her lyrics are simply dumb and the instrumentals that accompany her sound like they were made from a computer programmed only to get people to dance.

The thing about going into an experience with even a little bit of prejudice is that often we overcompensate against the way we think we are biased. "Intuition," for all that I loathe about it, is actually one of the better songs on 0304. So, yeah, this is a pretty terrible album and "sellout" is a pretty mild word to apply to this auditory mess.

From the first beats that open "Stand," it is hard to argue that 0304, for all of its problems is not the work of Jewel. With fourteen songs - I am liberally calling these tunes "songs," in the case of many of them "chants" might be more appropriate - clocking in at 53:42, 0304 is Jewel's album. Every song was written by Jewel with music co-written by Jewel and either Lester A.. Mendez, Anthony Bell, Guy Chambers or Rick Nowels. They generally all sound alike - dance-pop beats dominating - so her co-writers either are all experimenting the exactly the same way or Jewel had a lot of influence in the sound of each song. Moreover, Jewel takes a co-producer credit, so she clearly had quite a bit of creative control (despite admitting in the liner notes that she allowed "America" to be censored some). Jewel has given up even the pretense of playing any of her music, though. She is not even credited with clapping on "Yes U Can."

Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of 0304 is that in the liner notes, Jewel claims that this album represents more of the songs she's wanted to produce for years. That being the case, it seems that her articulate poetry with a surprisingly high level of diction that defined her early albums was simply a facade hiding a twelve year-old girl's internet dumbspeak, as evidenced by titles that cannot even be spelled out in an adult fashion: "Run 2 U," "2 Find U," "Yes U Can," etc.

Normally, I don't relish the citations I make from lyrics because I have to figure out what lyrics say the most about a given album and that often takes some time and care to select. With 0304, it's a virtual shooting gallery for me! There are so many targets to fire at, I'm having trouble narrowing them down. The crux of this album is that the lyrics are predictable, utilize the most inane rhyme schemes and on the one exception where the lines actually have some meaning, they are buried by dance-pop beats and synthesizer noises.

From the first time I heard "Intuition," I knew one of the potential problems with Jewel going over to the Dance Side would be that the lyrics lacked some of her trademark intelligence. It was probably because she started with that first single to make the obvious plays from one line to another, like "In a world of postmodern fad / What's good now is bad" ("Intuition"). Wow, good and bad being set against one another, this is a surprise, what about light and dark? The album is crushed by lyrics that are universally unsurprising, save perhaps that in the especially inane "2 Find U," she refers to her love interest as "Hey u!" Wow, there's some serious intimacy that deserves the devotions of "Do not walk away / Let's choose love, come on / [shudder] What do u say? / Hey, u / Know that I would spend / My whole life all over again / 2 find u" ("2 Find U"). In other words, it is hard to take what little message there is on 0304 seriously because it is phrased using the most standard paradigms and lines.

The only thing even worse than Jewel's spelling on 0304 is the predictability of the lines. "Intuition," at its very best, impressed me for its use of the word "intuition," which does not so much rhyme with . . .well, anything. My hope going into 0304 was that perhaps for all of its dance sound that was rumored to be the big musical shift for Jewel, at least there might be some clever lines that surprised me. From the opening lines of "Walk in a corner shop / See a shoplifting cop / See the old lady with a gun / See the hero try 2 run / Nothing is what is seems, I mean / It's not all dirty, but it's not all clean . . . Mothers weep, children sleep / So much violence ends in silence / It's a shame there's no one 2 blame" ("Stand") the album presents rhymes that look like the words were assembled from some sort of Dr. Seuss Thesaurus (where words are not connected by similar meanings, but rather how they rhyme with one another). By the time the album gets to "Yes U Can," one suspects the listener would be numbed to dumb, but wow, Jewel tops herself with a song that appears to be all about dance-club skanks. And here, the image of Jewel as the quiet, good-girl folk-artist dies a quick and gruesome death. Sadly, it seems that the worst, dumbest lyrics are also the most repeated on 0304 and "Yes U Can" is just inane in a sweaty dance-club way in the way the repetition numbs the listener to the complete stupidity spewing forth from Jewel's mouth.

The problem is that the album is not universally stupid, but Jewel either is allowed to be treated as dumb or she assumes her audience is. When "America," another terribly repetitive song, comes up, it seems that Jewel actually has something to say. She rails with a social conscious with observations like "Everywhere I go, seems like Bush is on TV / We shed blood in the name of liberty . . . We are trying in America / We're spying in America / Getting high in America . . ." ("America") that, despite repeating many of the sentiments and concepts from "Stand," appear to have something to say. It is too bad that the instrumentals completely overpower the lyrics with bass and keyboards. Her message gets lost under the music. It is especially disturbing that she admits in the liner notes that lyrics were changed for fear of litigation, acknowledging that she is being censored. In the vernacular of the clubbers who might appreciate this album: Dude, where's your spine?!

Vocally, Jewel's new "style" is unforgivable. Her natural voice - one of her definitive assets - is produced over to be bland and limited in its range. On "Stand" she sounds almost computerized and when listening to "Becoming," I found myself having flashbacks to the Merril Bainbridge album The Garden! Indeed, only on "Haunted" does Jewel reveal anything remotely like her ability and natural voice and that song is strangely unmemorable among the overproduced tracks that define 0304.

Sadly, the bulk of the album sounds like "Sweet Temptation" where Jewel's voice has been shifted and altered by production elements to make her sound more mechanical, less human and less natural. Her voice is obscured, altered and computer-shifted throughout the album so it seldom sounds like she is there alone. Yes, 0304 might be the Jewel Of Borg Dance Celebration Album.*

As for the music, it's catchy but repetitive and utterly forgettable. It's all about hooks and the melodies are dancable but they mix poorly with the lines and it sounds nothing like anything of substance. Instead, it's pretty much the most inane synth, drum, bass-driven dance-pop one could imagine.

Yeah, even when I suspended my expectations, this album disappointed. It's just terrible. It's terrible in a way that most of us who saw Jewel as a savior from the Blonde Revolution teens (Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Mandy Moore) are surprised that she would stoop to. And if this is what she wanted to create all along . . . well, that's just sad.

The best track is "Fragile Heart" based on the lyrics alone, the worst of this abysmal pop-dance album is "Yes U Can," which is pretty much the anthem for dumb clubbing anonymous sex acts.



*(if you get the reference, give yourself a gold star).

For other Jewel albums, be sure to visit my reviews of:
Pieces Of You
Spirit
Joy: A Holiday Celebration
This Way

1/10

For other music reviews, be sure to visit my Music Review Index Page!

© 2012, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Jewel Becomes Indistinct Before The Sellout: This Way Flatly Disappoints!

The Good: Moments of voice, Moments of musical experimentation
The Bad: Musically and lyrically boring
The Basics: Surprisingly bad, Jewel experiments with all sorts of musical sounds and genres, only to create an album that sounds indecisive and sloppy.


I tend to take umbrage with the idea that an artist who tries to jump out of the niche that they might have become popular in is selling out. The idea that an artist cannot evolve or grow or try something new is a fallacy that disappoints the conscientious reviewers who discover the true joy of an artist who might be talented in more than just one genre. Then again, when they construct an entire album based upon one of the few things that worked on their prior album, it can be classified as a sellout as they attempt to reap in for commercial gains in a new niche what they have lost in a previous niche.

With that in mind, This Way is Jewel's feeler album. As I come close to finishing my Jewel reviews, I offer the review everyone else seems to be avoiding. Shortly before she completely sold out to the dance-pop crowd with "0304," Jewel released This Way, where she attempts to experiment over several different genres. However, unlike Sophie B. Hawkins' Timbre (reviewed here!) or Heather Nova's South (reviewed here!), which both explored various musical genres and illustrated those artists' willingness to take on more unusual instruments, This Way sounds like it is desperately scrambling to find a new niche and the album fails to come together in the end. Instead, this is a sloppy collection of singles that fail to become a cohesive album and ultimately blur together as a strange variety of white noise.

With fourteen tracks, clocking in at 59:57, This Way is definitely the musical vision of Jewel (Jewel Kilcher). Jewel wrote (or co-wrote) all of the songs on the album and she provides the primary vocals on this album. As well, she picks up a co-producer credit on This Way, which illustrates her greater control in the overall sound of the album. Unfortunately, she also abandons any pretense of being instrumentally inclined and is only credited with singing on this album. This is a disappointing step back as she started out as a well-rounded singer-songwriter who actually played at least one instrument on her debut. Since then, though, it seems she has decided to focus more on other aspects. What aspects those might be (apparently production) it seems baffling that she would give up any portion of what she was talented at in favor of (it certainly wasn't voice because her vocals have been generally decent from song one!).

Musically, This Way is a jumble of various styles and forms. Evolving from a folk-rock/pop princess, Jewel takes the buckshot approach on this album. She still has pop-rock ("Standing Still," "Do You Want To Play?"), but she puts feelers out into dance-pop ("Serve The Ego"), Country ("Everybody Needs Someone Sometime"), Christian rock ("Jesus Loves You") and Gospel ("Break Me"). She still has the soft ballads ("Till We Run Out Of Road") but they have more of a country twang to them and her only real attempts to keep those who loved her folk-rock work are the final two tracks ("Grey Matter" and "Sometimes It Be That Way") which were recorded live and have the "lone chick at open mic night" feel to them.

Whereas many earlier albums by Jewel have the lyrics going for them, this album is much more neutral in the quality of the lines Jewel penned. Foreshadowing her descent into dance music of the most inane type ("0304" is so shockingly bad that hearing it twice before writing this review is tainting my ability to write this review, despite having listened to This Way nine times, the last four of which were in a row immediately before beginning this review!), Jewel sacrifices meaning for the easy rhymes. Take, for example, her mainstream single that performed the best from This Way, "Standing Still." With a fifth-grader's sense of diction and rhyme schemes she wrote, "Mothers on the stoop / Boys in souped-up coups / On this hot summer night / Between fight and flight / Is the blind man's sight / And a choice that's right / I roll the window down / Fell like I'm gonna drown in this strange town / Feel broken down / Feel broken down" ("Standing Still"). While some of her earliest songs had sophisticated rhyme schemes or didn't even bother trying to rhyme, Jewel now makes poetry that sounds like it came from a simpleton.

Nowhere is this worse on This Way than the hit that convinced her to sell out to the Dance music crowd. On "Serve The Ego," she seems to have become completely intellectually lazy with lines like ". . . Do you like what you see? / I'll dance for you / And you'll dance for me / . . . Who says it is not my destiny / To let you control me / Underneath the disco light / Everybody's feeling alright (sic) / Get on your hands and knees / and praise the new deity / Serve the ego . . ." repeated over and over again. It is perhaps the definition of insipid pop-dance song.

Indeed, the only hint of the Jewel who broke out with songs like "You Were Meant For Me" and "Foolish Games" is the title track This Way. On that song, she reminds listeners what a pop-princess she could be with yet another anthem that speaks powerfully to her 12 - 18 female demographic. She croons "Say that you'll stay / Forever this way / Forever and forever / That we'll never have to change / Don't move / Don't breathe / Don't change / Don't leave / And promise me / Say you'll stay / We'll stay / This way" (This Way) and hearing it, I have to ask myself, "Who were teen girls idolizing at the turn of the millennium if not Jewel?! Indeed, such emotional simplicity seems like it could only appeal to that starry eyed youth who has a fresh love that lives in denial of how life is constant change. Don't get me wrong, the song This Way is good in exactly the way many of Jewel's other pop ballads are, but it never had the success of her other songs.

And frankly, knowing what comes next, This Way (both the single and the buckshot album) are preferable.

Vocally, Jewel does not stretch at all on This Way, but at least she does not produce over her innate talent . . . much. Instead, she tends to trend toward the lower ends of her vocal range on songs like "Cleveland," avoiding the sopranic ranges she can kill with. As a result of hampering her own range, many of the songs blend together, despite the instrumental and tempo diversity she presents on the various tracks.

And musically, she might not be playing her own instruments on This Way, but she has opened up to a richer sound. "I Won't Walk Away" has a very full string section sound to it and it almost sounds like a mid-80's love song from a big movie soundtrack. This is a distinct difference from her twangy sound on "The New Wild West."

But in the end, Jewel's musical experimentation does not pay off. This Way is boring at best, an auditory mess at worst. While any three songs on the album might be fine put back to back, the net result of the musical experimentation and diversity on this album is not to evoke the impression that Jewel is experimenting and growing, but rather that she has no idea what it is she wants out of her musical career.

And if her subsequent album is any indication, it appears all she wants is success: at least This Way has some sense of artistry, even if the album itself is a mess. What comes next . . . oh, it doesn't even have that!

For other Jewel albums, be sure to visit my reviews of:
Pieces Of You
Spirit
Joy: A Holiday Celebration

3.5/10

For other music reviews, be sure to visit my Music Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2012, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Jewel May Have Spirit And We Can (Mostly) Hear It.

The Good: Decent lyrics, Good voice, Good musical diversity
The Bad: Middle of the album is mush
The Basics: Only very barely above average, Spirit has some truly inspired songs, balanced by a lot of unmemorable ones.


As I continue to burn through the albums of Jewel, I find myself considering what makes an album average versus above average. In the case of Jewel's album Spirit, I found myself rather instantly at a loss for "cons." My initial plan was to rate Spirit at about average, which is where I put her debut Pieces Of You (reviewed here!) and not recommend because the best songs had all been singles. But with about two seconds of research, I discovered that "Deep Water" and "Absence Of Fear,"- which I had noted from the very first time I heard it at the end of the pilot to Once And Again (reviewed here!) - had never been released as singles. Thus, when Jewel comes out with her inevitable "Best Of" album, there is a probability that it will not include all the best Spirit has to offer.

But then, I thought of that big, gray section between "Down So Long" and "Absence Of Fear." This section of the album is about as memorable as Jewel's album Joy: A Holiday Celebration (reviewed here!) was to me now. As a footnote to that old review, I swear I don't remember a thing about the album, save the melody to the refrain of the title song. Everything else from that album . . . whoosh, it's gone from my mind. The disturbing thing is that after several listens to Spirit, I am already finding that I am struggling to write about the bulk of this album.

With fourteen tracks (there is an additional song attached to the final song) clocking in at 55:32, Spirit reminds the listener that Jewel is a genuine artist who is bursting with talent. She wrote or co-wrote all of the songs, save the bonus track. Said bonus track, 'This Little Bird" is also the only song she does not provide primary vocals on. And hey, she gives the 2:43 to her mother, who is also her manager, so it's pretty hard to argue with that. Otherwise, it is Jewel writing and Jewel singing. What seems baffling about Spirit is that it is less Jewel playing than on her debut! Credited with guitars on "Pieces Of You," Jewel only plays acoustic guitar on "Fat Boy" on Spirit and she doesn't nab any credit in the production-end of the album this time out. So, strangely, Jewel does less on Spirit and the result is less extremes in the songs, but also less that is distinguished in any way.

Spirit seems to burn itself out quickly on the lyrical front, starting with some of its best and most insightful songs before degenerating into the more predictable rhyme schemes and blase lines. To be fair, Jewel recovers well at the very end with "Absence Of Fear," but in between, there are sadly far too many songs that are indistinct or obvious for my tastes. But, because it was not a hit or a single, it is worth noting that "Absence Of Fear" is a well-written track that is surprising it was not released to try to bolster the album. Jewel accurately and powerfully captures the sensation of emerging into the world again when she writes "This vessel is haunted / It creaks and moans / My bones call to you / In their separate skin / I make myself translucent / To let you in, for / I am wanting / And I am needing you here / Inside the absence of fear" ("Absence Of Fear"). Jewel does seem quite able to articulate complex emotions with decent imagery and a sense of poetics that most pop-rock artists lack in today's overproduced, hit-driven market.

This is not to say that Spirit is without commercial appeal; far from it. "Down So Long" is a bluesy anthem for all those who have felt kicked around and it starts with the universal lines. And for as little as I like "Hands," the lyrics manage to say something that virtually everyone can relate to (even if one of her lines is performed in a way that still sounds like she's singing "A rabbit's a man who has no voice"). And Jewel does seem to specialize in a pretty high caliber of love song, like with "Jupiter" with its references like "Venus de Milo in her half-baked shell / Understood the nature of love very well . . . Oh, oh Jupiter / Oh, oh be still my little heart / Oh, oh love is a flame neither timid nor tame / Take these stars from my crown / Let the years fall down / Lay me out in firelight / Let my skin feel the night." It becomes fairly easy to see why so many young women flocked to her; she taps into something both simple and universal.

But it's not all high-minded and it is certainly not all great poetics. "What's Simple Is True" is simple in the most boring of ways with its plaintive "I love you's" and after "Jupiter," the only song that stood out to my ear was "Barcelona." Sadly, it stands out because the lyrics use some of the most predictable rhymes and senses of rhythm I've heard in a long time. So, for example, Jewel writes and sings ". . . don't worry mother / It's no longer gravity / Hold me, release me / Show me the meaning of mercy" ("Barcelona") before degenerating into a number of "Let me fly's." On its own, this might not seem terrible, but on the heels of rhymes like "blew/do," the song does not measure up to the standards of the rest of the album.

That said, Spirit definitely improves on the debut in terms of vocal presentations. On "Pieces Of You," Jewel projected an air of forced gravitas and melodrama; on Spirit, she sings and she sings simply and directly. She is singing her poetry and she lets the words emote for themselves and this works quite well to her advantage. Instead of seeming to desperately beat the listener over the head (or about the ears) with the meaning of the lines, Jewel seems more laid back and truly soulful. In other words, the pop-folk singer uses her comfortable range and relaxes in it, not seeming to put up as much of an affect as her debut did.

And there is a little bit of vocal diversity over the course of the album; "Kiss The Flame" is soft and soprano, while she ventures a little lower in moments of "Down So Long." She is able to mix it up on tempo more on Spirit as well. Unfortunately, she seems to take the most risks near the beginning of the album, playing with fast and slow, low and high, before settling into slow, high songs with minimal instrumentation or production to plunge the latter half of the album into a musical quagmire of boredom that leaves the listener more tired than inspired.

Similarly, the keyboards and guitars, while not as boring as on her debut, quickly become more sublime and predictable than expressive. Jewel's poetry might be noteworthy, but much of the music on Spirit is often unmemorable. There are no hooks and as a result, the bulk of Spirit is more or less forgettable.

That said, my initial reaction to Spirit was a more firm sense of enjoyment than when I first put "Pieces Of You" in. Ironically, while her debut grew on me, in analyzing Spirit, I find myself liking it less; like it has a few superlative tracks, but as an album it seems like somehow less than the sum of its parts.

The best track is "Absence Of Fear," the low point is the utterly unmemorable "Enter From The East."

For other works by former Artist of the Month artists, check out my takes on:
Joan Baez - Any Day Now
Britney Spears - Femme Fatale (Deluxe Edition)
Tori Amos – “Jackie’s Strength” (single)

6.5/10

For other music reviews, be sure to visit my Music Review Index Page!

© 2012, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Jewel's Obvious Debut Leaves Me Neutral: Pieces Of You Appears, But Not Much More. (My Next Artist Of The Month!)

The Good: Good voice, Moments of poetic lyrics
The Bad: "Live" effects, Musically very limited
The Basics: With Pieces Of You, Jewel burst onto the popular music scene and she deserved the success it brought her, more or less.


Often there comes a moment when we realize we are not young, hip people anymore. I was never hip, but I was younger once and I at least felt like pop culture was (partially) my own. That changed when I was in college and I recall the precise moment it happened. I was working at Bradlee's, a little department store in the Northeast that was in the process of bankruptcy liquidation, in the mall in Binghamton, NY and I was at the Electronics department register when two girls (very much girls) came in, ran for Jewel's c.d. Pieces Of You and began earnestly singing it to one another. Having no connection to the song or that culture anymore, I suddenly felt old and out-of-touch.

It has, thus, taken me over a decade to getting around to listening to Jewel's music objectively and the irony for me is that I have long since reviewed her later album, Joy: A Holiday Collection (reviewed here!) and it is only now that I am restarting at her beginning to see how and where she came from musically. Honestly, after listening to Pieces Of You nine times, I am surprised she made it. This is not to say that Jewel is not talented; she is, but her music is . . . boring. After so many listens (it's beginning the tenth spinning as I begin this review) my overwhelming sensation upon hearing this album is boredom. I've heard it, I get it and it's a real take-it or leave-it musical experience.

With fourteen tracks, clocking in at 58:56, Pieces Of You is very much the creative endeavor of Jewel (Jewel Kilcher). She wrote (or co-wrote for two of the tracks) all of the songs on the album. As well, she provides the lead vocals and plays guitar. Writing, singing and playing all of her own music is always a plus in my book and I give credit where credit is due in that department. Jewel certainly is a creative force and Pieces Of You is certainly HER debut. She even is credited as a co-arranger on three of the tracks, so she's getting some production-type credits early on, which is a nice touch. In the liner notes, she has even included eight poems that are not made songs (though I'd love to hear "Las Vegas" put to music!). In other words, this is very much Jewel's endeavor.

Starting with her lyrics, Jewel does put up - rather effectively - the aura of being an artist. She is a poet and I recall debating with one of my writing professors back in college the merits of some of her works. Fortunately, I did not have access to all of the source material at the time. For, even though I like "I'm Sensitive," it is not sterling poetry when Jewel writes and sings "It doesn't take a talent to be mean / Your words can crush things that are unseen / So please be careful with me, I'm sensitive / And I'd like to stay that way . . .I have this theory that if we're told we're bad / Then that's the only idea we'll ever have / . . .'Cause anyone can start a conflict / It's harder yet to disregard it." I like the message and - truth be told - it might well be the best surprise on an album that has such overplayed hits as "Who Will Save Your Soul," "Foolish Games" and "You Were Meant For Me," but it is not fabulous writing.

And while I respect artists who are daring in their diction, using obscenities - even in a rebellious form - doesn't fly with me all the time. On Pieces Of You - the single - Jewel goes for champion of social consciousness by asking "She's an ugly girl, does it make you want to kill her?" followed by more lines of violence done to said ugly girl before trying to turn the line around into something that is an aspect of the aggressor (i.e. aggression is ugly and that's a part of you). She continues with the theme, attacking pretty girls, homosexuals and Jews. The most problematic aspect here is that she refers to homosexuals exclusively as "faggot.” We get that Jewel is trying to express it from the perspective of the person overcome with hatred, but we get it after the first use of the epitaph. Moreover, following the many repetitions of "faggot," we get to Jew. There are certainly plenty of epitaphs to use in place of "Jew" that would indicate a place of pure hatred in the mind of the subject, so one has to ask: why does Jewel throw around one slanderous term but patently avoid the other? Is she all right with potentially being branded a homophobe, but squeamish about being called an Anti-semite? That seems odd, especially considering that she is likely neither. However, the song is gutted one way or the other by the lack of commitment to the theme or the way it is so overbearing as to almost sound like what it is supposed to be against.

But it's not all social statements on Pieces Of You (the album). Some of them are simple, direct love songs to be sung plaintively between girls still imagining their first kiss. Yes, this is the album with "Foolish Games" and it is hard to see how it would not captivate preteen girls everywhere with its longing poetry. For example, Jewel writes "I watched from my window, / Always felt I was outside looking in on you / You were always the mysterious one / With dark eyes and careless hair, / You were fashionably sensitive, but too cool to care" ("Foolish Games") which pretty much sounds like the poetic definition of middle school crush to me. In the credit where credit is due department, Jewel captures that sentiment pretty perfectly, even if it was irritatingly overplayed.

And oh-so-melodramatically sung. Yes, from the first time I heard "Who Will Save Your Soul?" my thought was, "Wow, this is a woman trying to prove herself!" There was a Wayne Brady interview with Mariah Carey where she admitted she was insecure and wanted people to like her and Brady said, something to the effect of "you can stop; we LIKE you!" It is with that sense of sentiment that I wish someone involved in producing Jewel's album would have stopped her and said, "Jewel, you're already signed, relax and just sing." She does this (finally) on tracks like "Amen," which closes the album, but before we are far too often subjected to Melodrama Heavy. On "Foolish Games" sounds like she is trying to sing her heart out (literally) and "Who Will Save Your Soul" makes her sound like she is constipated. Many of the other tracks ("Little Sister," "I'm Sensitive") are just pure pop in her sound and it is easy to tire of her high-pitched cooing sound.

Not all of the vocals can be claimed as successful, no matter how much they are Jewel's innate talents and not production elements. The epitome of this is "Adrian." This seven minute opus has Jewel moaning her way through the song like she's sat on a tack and is trying to perform while prying it out of her buttocks. Seriously, this song is painful to listen to and that it isn't over quickly just makes it more unbearable. Stuck in between candy-coated vocals (of which "I'm Sensitive," which follows it is the most perfect example), "Adrian" is just irritating to listen to and is not at all emblematic of the quality of vocals Jewel is clearly able to execute.

Some of the songs are presented as live tracks, ending with an audience's applause and this is particularly irritating on tracks like Pieces Of You and "Little Sister." That said, Jewel does seem to have serious range going up into soprano range effortlessly on tracks like "Little Sister." Yes, she can sing and at her worst, it is still easy to see how she got signed. Moreover, some of the tracks illustrate a truly great potential for Jewel, like "Near You Always" which should have been a fourth single from this abum.

Overall, though, the music is boring. The songs are universally light pop ballads that range from sounding like she was in a coffee house singing (Pieces Of You) to slightly more produced pieces that are incongruent ("You Were Meant For Me"). Instead of lending her a diverse sound, it simply sounds like Jewel doesn't know what she wants to be presenting to her audience.

But that is not enough to keep me from recommending this album. Yeah, I'm as surprised as you, but with an album so perfectly average, I often let it come down to a coin toss. In this case, I am justifying the decision of the coin by suggesting that when Jewel does eventually release a "Best Of" album, it is unlikely to contain "I'm Sensitive," which is catchy enough to be the superlative track of the album and that today I'm just not willing to call the twelve million people who bought this album whiny preteen girls. It's erratic, it's underdeveloped, but it is a start that showed real promise and artistry, which put her ahead of everyone else in the Blonde Revolution of the mid-1990s.

The best track is "I'm Sensitive," the worst (of the memorable tracks) is "Adrian."

For other, former, Female Artist Of The Month reviews, be sure to check out my takes on:
An Ancient Muse - Loreena McKennitt
50 Greatest Hits - Reba McEntire
Beginnings - Shania Twain

5/10

For other music reviews, be sure to check out my Music Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2012, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Joy: Jewel Sings About Christ, Yet Calls It A "Holiday" Collection!

The Good: Voice, Creativity of arrangements
The Bad: Hardly original, Seldom inspired, Musically dull and predictable (mostly), Disturbing arrangement on "Rudolph"
The Basics: Hardly inspired, Jewel presents a mix of Christmas, holiday and songs that have nothing to do with holidays songs in a disappointing "holiday" collection.


Every now and then, I like to step out of my proud, Northern Liberal facade to say something that might surprise those who know me as a smug, progressive critic. Today, that note from me is that I don't, as a general rule, hate Christmas albums. Sure, I've said in the past that I view them as a cheap attempt by many artists to capitalize on a near-guaranteed moneymaker and that certain artists would lose my respect if they release a Christmas album (Sophie, Heather, I hope you're reading that!), but in general, I have nothing against Christmas albums on principle. I don't even have anything against Christmas hymns. Seriously; when John Cullum sings the "Ave Maria" in the Northern Exposure episode "Seoul Mates" it brings a tear to my eye. Even at my most cynical, I've noted that Christianity has the music to sell it; no other major religion I know of tries so hard to keep its people engaged with a catchy tune as Christianity. And I've no problem with that!

I do, however, have a problem with disingenuity. For all of the things I ever thought I would accuse the artist Jewel of, I think being disingenuous or deceptive would have been pretty much the last. But calling her Christmas album Joy: A Holiday Collection when six songs specifically sing of Jesus Christ as being the savior (with several more glorifying other aspects of Christian mythology/religion), it's hardly truth in advertising to call it a "holiday" collection. Sure, Christmas is a holiday, but so is St. Swithen's Day. When you mean "Christmas," you ought to say "Christmas." For those not yet duped by Jewel: Joy is an album primarily of Christmas hymns and carols.

With thirteen tracks clocking in at 44:33, Joy: A Holiday Collection is Jewel Kilcher's take on seven public domain Christmas hymns, two classic carols, three tracks written by Jewel and one that is a Medley of three different works. It's essentially Jewel's chance to show off her pipes in a chance to cash in on those Christmas dollars. Actually, Jewel presents her unique take on several songs and at the very least, the album is distinctly Jewel. Mostly, that works.

I've never had a serious problem with Jewel's voice, save when she misuses it or tries to do something with it that goes against her natural sound. On Joy, she is natural, clear and hits her marks vocally. On "I Wonder As I Wander," she is high, articulate and impressive. Jewel reminds the listener just how beautiful a soprano voice can be on that song. Similarly, on "Hark The Herald Angels Sing" and "Silent Night," she is vocally beautiful and impressive, as she is on her original track "Gloria." And frankly, her vocals on "O Holy Night" are flawless. Strangely, I still prefer Cullum's "Ave Maria" to Jewel's performance on Joy, but she does an adequate job of singing and emoting in that song.

And the vocals are not the problem with her "Christmas" arrangement of "Hands." "Hands," one of the cornerstone tracks to Jewel's album Spirit, appears on this album . . . with bells and Jewel belting the song out even more plaintively than in the original (if that can be believed), but without anything that definitively makes it a holiday song any more than it originally was. Instead, the jaded reviewer might suggest that this was an attempt to draw in the die-hard Jewel fans who might be curmudgeons on the principle that they needed the Jewel song. Fans are likely to enjoy just how much Jewel there is on this album.

And Jewel certainly comes through with her poetry on her original song ""Face Of Love." In her attempt to write a "holiday" song for the ages, she expresses herself well, though with a melancholy that is hardly festive. In a moment of reflection, she writes and sings, "In silence I feared my heart / Would remain words unheard / Inside a separateness of skin / But now I know that the skin just veils the soul / For I have seen, the face of love / The face of God, the face of love" ("Face Of Love"). Perhaps more accurately, "Joy" (which isn't often a happy-sounding album) is more accurately subtitled "Jewel's Spiritual Collection." Okay, "Winter Wonderland" might not be a spiritual, but it is a holiday song, whereas "Face Of Love" and even "Medley" strike one as far more spiritual than holiday-themed.

Traditionalists, as well, might have problems with Jewel's interpretations as opposed to her original material. Opening with a very poppy version of "Joy To The World," the album seems at many points to put Jewel's style above any sense of message and that ranges from the awkward ("Joy To The World") to the downright disturbing ("Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer"). Jewel certainly is creative in her arrangements, though and the "Medley" of "Go Tell It On The Mountain," "Life Uncommon" and "From A Distance" is soulful and interesting. It's not terribly Christmas-y or even holiday-y, but it's auditorily intriguing.

What is not is Jewel's arrangement of "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer." Jewel reinvents the song as a jazzy, hip, upbeat number fresh with scatting and disturbing rests that sound often enough like she is singing through having a seizure. Here, Jewel takes up the mantle of one who seems to want to mess with something good just for the sake of messing with it and just because one is creative does not mean all they produce is art. Jewel's interpretation of "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer" is more an experiment in sound and form as opposed to altering the song for any sort of content or message and as a result, it is troubling to listen to. It is more noisy than artistic.

Fortunately, this is the exception to the rule on Joy. While "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer" might be unlistenable, the rest of the songs are more dull or standard than horrible. "Winter Wonderland" and "Hark The Herald Angels Sing" sound like they could be performed by pretty much any college girl's a cappella group. Similarly, "O Little Town Of Bethlehem" shows no creativity or sense of artistic expression at all. While Jewel's take on "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer" might be terrible, at least it shows some effort on her part. She might even have something she is trying to say in the song. Her take on "O Little Town Of Bethlehem" simply says "Look! I can sing 'O Little Town Of Bethlehem!'" Of this we had no doubt before she recorded it; Jewel, we know, can sing virtually anything.

Finally, the dealbreaker for the album is that it's short. Sure, I might not have enjoyed much of what was on Joy: A Holiday Collection, but for a c.d. the least Jewel should have done was packed it with music. "It's terrible!" "Yes, but at least the portions are good!" Here, the portion is small, leaving those who don't like what is on the plate poking around hoping there might be something more that we missed.

The best track is "O Holy Night," the low point is "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer."

For other Christmas albums, please check out my reviews of:
These Are Special Times – Celine Dion
A New Thought For Christmas – Melissa Etheridge
Wintersong – Sarah McLachlan

3.5/10

For other c.d. and singles reviews, please be sure to visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2010, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.


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