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.
| | |
No comments:
Post a Comment