Jewel – This Way (an album review)

This album is solid. There are some songs I’m not crazy about, but only one that I want to murder. That’s better than most albums.

Generally speaking, I like the less poppy stuff the best, which incidentally means I like the country sounding songs the best. I also prefer story telling songs over love songs. Regardless, Jewel is an amazing writer, and even the songs I don’t like post-recording I appreciate on paper.

I really think Jewel feels confined by the pop genre. Her best songs are ones where she ignores the rules. Rambling stories with intermittent choruses. I love music like that: Warren Zevon, The Mountain Goats, they don’t care if they drop a chorus, a verse or a bridge. Or all three. Jewel is at her best when she works the same way. And when she breaks out that twang.

She uses some words and imagery multiple times. I’m ignoring the normal words like articles, common nouns and common verbs. Most notably repeated words are: barbed wire, neon, disco, and vain. Two songs mention a man with his hands in his pockets, and two songs talk about problems seeming small while in an airplane.

But, seriously. The word neon comes up a lot in this album. It’s amusing.

If you do the math, this album gets an 80%, and the average song rating is a four. Not bad, Jewel. Not bad at all.

As for something to drink while savoring this album? That’s where things get tricky. Perhaps a rhubarb wine. Sophisticated yet slightly rural. Sweet and uncommon.

yeah, rhubarb wine.