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Jewel seemed to be the epitome of the folky, coffee house, female singer-songwriter of the 90's. We've all heard the living-in-the-back-of-her-van story ad nauseum by now. She was pretty, and had a pretty voice. She had talent (to some extent). And she had several songs on the uppermost regions of the charts: Who Will Save Your Soul, Foolish Games, etc. She seemed like she was really trying hard to be Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Janis Ian, Leonard Cohen, and others, all rolled into one heart-shape-face cutie from Alaska. Her vocals tended to go from her cute little baby girl voice, to her swooning, womanly voice, a la Joni Mitchell. I've always found that voice to be perhaps her best attribute. Her lyrics, however, seriously needed work. Pieces of You has some of the worst lyrics I have ever heard on a hit album. From "You be Henry Miller and I'll be Anais Nin", to "He'll never wear that funny little hat again", to the whispered "doctor's turned the machine off", she proved she did not have a way with a poetic turn of a phrase. The title track, a plea for tolerance and an end to prejudice just has no weight to it. The song Adrian just seems to go on forever, with no real purpose to the story. Morning Song is her attempt at a countrified sound, something she's had more luck at nowadays. But as I said, she had moxie. She had such a tremendous amount of ambition that you couldn't help but be impressed by her attempt to be a master songstress. If her reach exceeded her grasp, well at least she tried. It's still entertaining to see her just miss the goal.
Even all those years ago, I was impressed by the song Painters, which is still the best thing on this album. She weaves a story of a painter and his muse, filled with tragedy, and a kind of undying love that can be schmaltzy in the wrong hands. But Jewel gets it right, giving her best vocal performance of the album. Even the strings near the end don't seem to be too ice-creamy. Jewel clearly didn't have the lyrical gifts of an Alanis Morrisette, who was far more blunt and direct in the words she sang, as well as her voice being more unpretty. But if you wanted to go and compare them, thorough past songwriters, you could say that AM was closer to a Bob Dylan style, while Jewel was the more Joni Mitchell type.
All in all, this may perhaps be seen as damning with faint praise when it comes to Jewel.
But I like this album, even if as only a guilty pleasure from the 90's. IMHO Jewel never did anything as true as this album again. I doubt if she ever will be bothered to. But it still stands as her most memorable work, if more than a bit amateurish. Recommended for fans of the Lilith Fair movement in Women's music, nineties retro freaks (aren't we all nowadays), and a time when young musicians really CARED about doing something truly meaningful with music.------PEACE
