Jewel Albums (10)
What The Critics Say
Clearly intended to appear at the end of Jewel's run on Dancing with the Stars -- a run that was pre-empted due to injury -- Lullaby finds her delivering her first children's album, appropriately appearing on Fisher Price Records. That label and title, along with versions of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," and "Brahms Lullaby," are the strongest indication that Lullaby is intended for little ones; if it was taken as pure sound, it's almost indistinguishable from Jewel's earliest albums, particularly her crawling, portentous sophomore effort, Spirit. To her credit, Jewel never panders to kids, never creates something sickly sweet or cutesy, she merely delivers a collection of lullabies intended to relax and soothe. She succeeds so well in that regard that none of the individual songs stand out, they all blend together in a sweet, sometimes haughty sigh, something that will ease plenty of children into slumber. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
It isn't hard to view Jewel's country music makeover on Perfectly Clear with a mildly cynical eye, especially as it follows her dance-pop shakeup on 2003's 0304 by a mere five years. Such whiplash changes in direction are bound to raise suspicion, but Jewel wears her country threads better than her diva hand-me-downs, possibly because it suits her mythical back-story of living out of the back of the truck but it's also a smaller leap from folk to country...at least in theory, that is, as Perfectly Clear isn't quite a full-fledged country album. Like Bon Jovi before her and Jessica Simpson after, Jewel's country move is more about marketing than music, an adjustment that puts her in line with adults raised on Pieces of You but more likely to listen to Brad Paisley than Feist. There are fiddles and steel guitars threaded throughout the album but their presence is nearly subliminal at most points; they're felt, not heard, just enough to give it a country feel. The setting may be country -- courtesy of producer John Rich, whose production recalls his hazy, soft solo album rather than the gonzo strut of Big & Rich -- but Jewel is not a country singer, no matter how often she affects a twang. She's a folksinger, soaring with her long, lyrical phrases instead of aiming for the gut, something that grates when she does attempt something uptempo but she wisely avoids this pitfall through much of the album, choosing to dole out ballads and midtempo pop. This brings Perfectly Clear much closer to Pieces of You than any album she's made since, as it's filled with poppy, simple songs about relationships, never bogging down in portentous pretension, literary preoccupations, or glossy pop as she has in every record since. This doesn't necessarily make Perfectly Clear a "better" record -- some of those albums were pretty good even if they didn't adhere to the Jewel myth -- but it does mean it feels more like the Jewel that everybody came to love back in 1995, which is what it was intended to do. So it has the form and feel, but the devil is in the details, the songs that never quite hook and sometimes serve up some patently absurd moments, usually in the form of her overheated lyrics (which also betray how un-country she really is). Such details might be a deal-breaker for some, but Jewel feels and sounds comfortable here, something that will surely help her shift units with this record and will likely give her a long career, if she so chooses. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
'Goodbye Alice in Wonderland'
Release Date 5/2/2006
Tracks 13
Label Atlantic
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
The last time listeners encountered Jewel, the famously sensitive singer/songwriter had just performed an extreme makeover on herself, refashioning herself as a dance-pop diva on 2003's 0304. Artistically, it worked against all odds, and it did pretty well on the charts too, debuting at number two on the Billboard Hot 100, but her fans didn't necessarily warm to it, and three years later, Jewel is running away from the album she proclaimed as her "first record I enjoy listening to" ("It's fun!"), and back to safe territory with 2006's Goodbye Alice in Wonderland. Like 0304, this album comes with an explanation/apology from its auteur: "Goodbye Alice in Wonderland is the story of my life and is the most autobiographical album I have made since Pieces of You...By the end of the 13th song, if you have listened closely, you will have heard the story of the sirens song that seduced me, of a path I both followed and led, of bizarre twists and turns that opened my eyes, forcing me to find solutions so that discovering the truth would not lead to a loss of hope." And, yes, the album is indeed a song cycle, tracing her crisis of the soul in the wake of her dance-pop move, which might make Goodbye Alice in Wonderland sound pompous and self-absorbed, which it kind of is on one level; after all, albums that find an artist examining the fallout of a commercial success that they were a willing participant in are kind of narcissistic. But even if Goodbye is a bit of an unwitting star-trip -- Jewel may be trying to run from stardom, but the issues she explores here are too autobiographical, too much like diary entries to resonate deeply on a larger scale -- it doesn't mean the album doesn't work. In fact, as a piece of music and as a coherent set of songs, it's Jewel's strongest yet. Assisted by producer Rob Cavallo -- who has produced records for Michelle Branch and the Goo Goo Dolls, along with every Green Day album since 1995's Nimrod -- Jewel has created her most sonically appealing record, one that has plenty of different shades and textures. This keeps her ceaseless introspection from sounding like excessive navel-gazing, but it also helps draw out the variety within the songs themselves, which range from the meandering ballad of the title track to the ruminative, moody "Last Dance Rodeo" to the blatantly Dylanesque phrasing of "Stephenville, TX" to a trio of her best pop songs in "Again and Again," "Only One Too," and "Words Get in the Way." True, Jewel still has a tendency to spin out lyrics that are embarrassingly precious, but as a writer she's never been stronger, particularly in terms of the construction of the songs; these are tight, sturdy, melodic songs that are among her most memorable. And not only are the individual moments strong, but they add up to a cohesive, satisfying whole. In that sense, it's not altogether dissimilar to 0304, which she may be apologizing for now, but prior to this album, it was the only one of her records that held together from beginning to end. Goodbye Alice in Wonderland may have an entirely different feel and intent than its glitzy predecessor, but like 0304, it is proof that even if Jewel doesn't have as high a profile, or perhaps as large an audience, as she did in 1996, she's a better songwriter and record-maker than she was at the outset of her career. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Within the liner notes to her fourth album, 0304, Jewel includes a note to her fans, explaining, "This album may seem different to you," which is putting it mildly. For a singer who has been making low-key singer/songwriter albums so unassuming that on her debut the two singles had to be re-recorded for mass consumption, it is a big shock to put on 0304 and hear that she has abandoned folkiness and adult pop to make her dance-pop album, of all things. A move that's even more shocking when you consider that when this was released in June of 2003, the teen-driven dance-pop boom of the late '90s/early 2000s was over, so it doesn't necessarily even sound like part of the mainstream of the time, suggesting that this isn't a calculated effort to ride the latest hip trends. No, the music on 0304 is the wild, weird result of Jewel's desire to create a "modern interpretation of big band music. A record that (is) lyric-driven, like Cole Porter stuff, that also has a lot of swing...that combined dance, urban, and folk music." While the big band and Cole Porter allusions are a stretch -- although it is true that this is as lyric-driven as her previous three records -- with the assistance of producer Lester Mendez, she has managed to blend dance, urban, and folk -- complete with pop overtones, of course -- in previously unimaginable ways. Like Sheryl Crow's eponymous second album, this picks up familiar strands of contemporary pop music and familiar themes in Jewel's own work, but the way they're assembled is disarmingly idiosyncratic -- it has a polished, commercial sheen, but the songs take weird twists and turns in their arrangements, structure, and lyrics (another thing this shares with Sheryl Crow is a predilection for odd pop-culture references and name-dropping). More than anything, it's the weird juxtapositions in the production -- the accordions and dance beats on "Intuition"; the way her protest tune, "America," ends in an electro-crash; the muted jazz trumpets on her Nelly Furtado-styled "Leave the Lights On," to name just a few -- that make this an original-sounding album, something with more imagination than the average dance-pop record. Better still, it sounds more authentic (and boasts a better set of songs) than her previous records, which were either too ramshackle or too self-serious and doggedly somber to really reveal much character. Here, even if it's under the veneer of commercial pop, she puts herself out on the line more than she ever has, and she's come up with her best record, with her best set of songs and best music yet. As she notes in her message to fans, "It's the first record I enjoy listening to. It's fun!" She's completely right on that note -- against all, it's the first album of hers that's a sheer pleasure to hear. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Jewel came dangerously close to drowning in her own solemnity and good intentions with her second album, so it comes as a great relief that This Way, her third effort, finds her lightening up and sharpening her focus, creating an album that never feels as somber or polished as Spirit. In fact, it's her first genuine step forward, since it finds her enhancing the latent folk and country influences in her music, attempting to add grit to her songs and performances, while retaining the pop sense of Pieces of You's studiocraft that made Spirit a more sonically satisfying record than her debut. Consequently, this is probably the best record she has cut to date, even if she still is very quick to indulge in silly, naïve lyrics (it's not just her save-the-world sentiments -- who on god's green earth has pictures of Randy Newman strewn across the floor?). Nevertheless, Jewel sounds looser, more comfortable than she ever has, and the music matches her attitude. The same problems may still remain, but her strengths have been enhanced and, at its best, This Way offers some fine, sweet adult alternative folk-pop -- maybe it has some dull stretches, and maybe she still takes herself a bit too seriously, but it's a classy adult pop record all the same. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
'Chasing Down the Dawn'
Release Date 10/10/2000
Tracks 62
Label Atlantic
See Album Tracklist and Review
'Joy: A Holiday Collection'
Release Date 11/2/1999
Tracks 13
Label Atlantic
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Joy: A Holiday Collection may surprise some Jewel fans, since it isn't a warm, intimate acoustic album. Then again, it may not, since it arrives on the heels of the exquisitely produced, unabashedly pop Spirit, which had lush musical backdrops for her folk-pop tunes. Joy is a full-bodied expansion of Spirit, however -- an unashamed classicist Christmas album, featuring all of the usual carols delivered with strings and choirs. Because Jewel has a big, powerful, attractive voice, Joy works, even if it is a little too predictable for its own good -- the closing "Christmas Version" of "Hands" is the only true signal, musically at least, that this is a Jewel number. Surely, this holiday album isn't a major addition to her catalog, but for hardcore fans, it may be a nice stocking stuffer. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
The multi-platinum success of Jewel's debut album Pieces of You came as a bit of a surprise to some observers, but it shouldn't have. Alone among all the female singer/songwriters of the post-alternative '90s, Jewel appealed to sensitive female teenagers and preteen girls. Her pretty melodies, gentle folk-rock, and sweetly naive lyrics are the sound of awkwardly creative adolescence, which made sense, since she was only a teenager at the time of her debut. That naïveté was the reason why Pieces of You was charming, even with a slapdash production that left in rough edges that should have been sanded. It wasn't until Jewel re-recorded the singles "Who Will Save Your Soul" and "You Were Meant for Me" that the album took off, because it was only then that the songs were given a properly polished, alluring production. Realizing this, Jewel abandoned any pretenses of being just a girl with her guitar on her eagerly awaited second album, Spirit. Released nearly four years after Pieces of You, Spirit is a markedly different (but recognizable) album from its predecessor, due largely to Patrick Leonard's glossy, radio-ready production. There is none of the raggedness that necessitated re-recordings with Pieces of You -- layered with gentle guitars and unobtrusive keyboards, every track feels as if it could be a hit single on adult alternative pop radio. If the production has changed, the basic sentiment behind the music has not -- in essence, Spirit is the same record as Pieces of You, with the same sweet melodies and naive poetry. Even if it doesn't have any songs that stand out like "Who Will Save Your Soul," it is, song for song, a more consistent album, even if the lyrics are often startlingly naive for a woman 24 years of age, especially on the lead single "Hands." But even if Spirit is a stronger, more listenable album than its predecessor, much of the awkward charm of Pieces of You has been removed -- which means that even if she appeals to the same audience as before, some of her initial fans may find that she's now a bit too slick in her attack to truly connect. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
'A Night Without Armor: Poems by Jewel'
Release Date 5/19/1998
Tracks 1
Label Atlantic
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Jewel's debut album is a charming collection of light alternative folk-rock from the teenage singer/songwriter. Her songs are occasionally naive, but her melodies can usually save her lyrics. ~ Sara Sytsma, All Music Guide
