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Jewel Gets Back to Organic Tunes
05/03/2006 11:45 AM, AP
Jim Bessman
Jewel, "Goodbye Alice in Wonderland" (Atlantic)
Three years after the surprising dance-pop groove mastery of her last album, "0304," Jewel returns to the kind of organic, autobiographical tunes that brought her fame with her 1995 debut "Pieces of You" on "Goodbye Alice in Wonderland."
The catchy first single "Again and Again" shows off an experienced pop tunesmith. The beautifully produced and arranged (and heartily sung) track has Jewel pledging to persevere in the face of true love's trials. But the published poet takes a darker tone in "Long Slow Slide," about an emotional freefall in a nightmarish circus setting.
Rejecting her stardom and its spiritual emptiness ("I hit the bottom when I reached the top"), the titletrack, which references Elton John's "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road," offers a brooding reflection bordering on self-absorption. But the Hollywood-jibing "Satellite" ushers in four terrific, tightly structured pop-rockers that not only reconnect with the rhythmic flair of "0304" but drive the album in a new direction musically and thematically.
And while she may not be entirely out of the woods of self-doubt when she ends up in "Stephenville, TX," the song suggests that she is well on her way in "trying to figure out who I am," both as an artist and person.
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