Jewel’s jewel of an album

Jewel is all grown up. Now in her late twenties the teen-aged phenomenon who wowed music lovers with her folksy compositions and sweet, clear tones some years ago, has matured into a more confident artist with a stronger, edgier sound. She shows this off in a new album titled This Way, which must be her best work as far as the musicality, lyrical content and over-all concept are concerned.

Maybe because you do not usually hear of pop stars coming from that state in the far north of the US of A, Jewel initially drew attention as the pop singer from Alaska. She was often referred to as the Jewel of the North. She played the guitar and got her career start going from one small joint to another. She performed her works in small joints with her mother as chaperone. Eventually, somebody took notice and Jewel Kilcher got the chance to record her compositions.

Pieces of You, her debut in 1995 and Spirit, which came three years later, catered to the young pop records’ buyers. While Jewel’s melodies sounded interesting, her lyrics came out sophomoric and her themes repetitive. That did not stop the albums from becoming big sellers though. She was new, different and also very pretty. Talks about her relationships – with Sean Penn, a rodeo cowboy and others – made her fodder for the gossip columns.

She was so popular that she even parlayed her writing talent into two books, A Night Without Armor: Poems and Chasing Down the Dawn: Life Stories, which were also sophomoric and repetitive but which her fans gladly lapped up. These girls even quoted her writings as though they were tenets from the Holy Scripture. "In silence you hear who you are becoming. You create yourself." Wow! "I rather see the world from another angle." Yuck!

But teen-age girls do leave childish things behind and if they are made of the right stuff they will become better artists with a surer grasp of what they are capable of. This seems like what happened to Jewel since she did her last album, the Christmas release Joy, A Holiday Collection two years ago.

This Way retains her sweetness but it is now laced with grit. She comes across as more serious, stronger and so sincere about what she sings about. I think of Tanya Tucker and Joan Osbourne and in some cases I even hear hints of Bon Jovi’s kind of very commercial rock music. Off-hand I can already name three cuts that will make very strong singles. Standing Still, Jesus Loves You and Til We Run Out of Road.

Jewel wrote those three songs as well as the 11 other cuts included in the album. This Way, Everybody Needs Someone Sometime, Break Me, Do You Want to Play?, Serve the Ego, Cleveland, I Won’t Walk Away, Love Me, Just Leave Me Alone, The New Wild West, and two bonus live-recorded tracks, Grey Matter and Sometimes It Be That Way.

Academy nominations

The Academy Awards nominations are out and the movie themes vying for the Oscar this year are the following: If I Didn’t Have You written and performed by consistent nominee Randy Newman from the animated feature Monster, Inc., May It Be sung and composed by Enya for The Fellowship of the Ring; There You’ll Be, a Dianne Warren song recorded by Faith Hill for Pearl Harbor; Until, the Golden Globe winning tune written and performed by Sting from Kate & Leopold; and Vanilla Sky by Paul McCartney, which is probably the only good thing to come out of the movie of the same title.

Hit albums in the US

Meanwhile, the big sellers in the US of A as per Billboard Magazine’s latest tabulation are as follows:

The singles: U Got It Bad by Usher; How You Remind Me by Nickelback; Always On Time by Ja Rule featuring Ashanti; Ain’t It Funny by Jennifer Lopez featuring Ja Rule; In the End by Linkin Park; Hey Baby by No Doubt featuring Bounty Killer; My Sacrifice by Creed; Wherever You Will Go by The Calling; A Woman’s Worth by Alicia Keys; and Get the Party Started by Pink.

The albums: Drive by country music star Alan Jackson, which has been number one for the past three weeks; Weathered by Creed; [Hybrid Theory] by Linkin Park, which has been in the top 10 for 67 weeks; Word of Mouf by Ludacris; Silver Side Up by Nickelback; Pain is Love by Ja Rule; Stillmatic by Nas; 8701 by Usher; M!ssundaztood by Pink; and the new entry into the top 10 No More Drama by Mary J. Blige.