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jammin'
SOS confessional confusion: A most confused,
confusing woman
With her new album Goodbye Alice in Wonderland, Jewel returns
to her roots
By Mohammad
A. Qayyum
Artist: Jewel
Album: Goodbye Alice in Wonderland***
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Jewel Kilcher made it to the bigtime, her first single was titled
'Who will save your soul' (when you won't save your own). It was a
deeply observed, folk-tinged song and with its success and the success
of the attendant debut album Pieces of You, Jewel, at a young age
of 21, was proclaimed one of the most promising new singer-songwriters.
Sadly since then, in view of the arc Jewel's career has taken, the
title of the debut song has now become a downright ironic reflection
on Jewel's career. Each successive album has become a battleground
for Jewel Kilcher's artistic soul culminating in her previous, dance-beat
inflexed album 0304 and attendant Britney-esque makeover which both
took her out of the affections of her fanbase. It appeared that with
the onset of success, Jewel got artistically fat, lazy. Her life turned
tabloid fodder with claims of having found domestic bliss with rodeo
star Ty Murray ('Jewel Says Her Cowboy Makes Her Art Seem Less Important:
I used to think that art was the be-all and end-all of life …but
I don't feel that anymore.' – VH1.com) and claims that alcohol
really helped her deal with her problems ('Around 30, I kind of realized
that alcohol really does solve all your problems. Whoever said drinking
doesn't help lied. You live and you learn.') While she did not turn
into a walking disaster zone that is Courtney Love, she did in terms
of substance seem to take a nosedive. Perhaps the plan had been all
the time to take the money and run: her second album (we found it
quaint then) was after-all a Christmas season cash-in. |
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Now
31, the latest album, Goodbye Alice in Wonderland for Jewel is a return
to her roots. The Dance beats are gone. There is greater depth and
deeper self-examination: she sings 'embarrassed to say / the rest
is rock and roll cliché / I hit the bottom when I reached the
top' on her latest album. What remains to be seen throughout the album
is whether she can get back up.
The answer to that question is, perhaps. There was a time when emotional
honesty was her forte. She seems to be getting back to that here somewhere.
'Stephenville, TX' is Dylanesque, a song of greatest honesty. It is
autobiographical and she basically lays out her life: So why not follow
me, the blond bombshell deity?/ I'll sell you neat ideas without big
words/ And a little bit of cleavage to help wash it all down…
And this |
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Alaskan
girl was living in Stephenville, Texas/ Yes, you guessed it, I moved
here because I fell in love with a man/ And I moved his ex-old lady's
things out of the closet/ The same closet I had to move my things
back in/ It didn't make me feel that great, as if to demonstrate/
Everything's temporary given enough time/ But hey, I've got nothing
to lose.'
The downside unfortunately is that where most of her observations
previously were deep, here a lot of what she shows is troublingly
traditional. The first words you hear on the album with 'Again and
Again' is perhaps a representation of her dilemma, she was once something
of a firebrand and now is happily domestic: (Listen dear/ I need you
to hear/ I cannot disappear/I've tried again and again and again.)
This is somewhat misogynistic (or perhaps just simply traditional)
as Britney Spears' 'Hit Me Baby One More Time' or 'I Was Born to Make
You Happy'. It is remarkable how submissive at times Jewel can be.
Lyrically, Jewel can be poetic or downright awkward from moment to
moment. Remarkable lines still abound, but they are also intermixed
with clunkers. The title track is most also confessional. Yet some
of the lyrics though are inelegant: lines like 'Guitar as my companion'
spring to mind. That said, her observational skills though are still
pointed: 'Satellite is Barbed'. (And everybody's got a great body,
but mine/That's just fine/ Cuz everybody's so shriveled up inside/
They're trying to hide behind/ Power Bars and Volleyball and Valium.)
It is however when she softens her stance during the song that she
goes astray: You can just see she is confused or is PR savvy to cover
all bases: She but put a sisterly hand around those she has been criticizing
to such good effect in the song and concludes "But that's all
right / We're still growing / You know that /Mistakes are allowed
when you're a Satellite." It just ruins the whole effect.
The arrangements are perhaps the most to blame for torpedoing most
songs on the album. The title track is case in point: it turns horrid
when the big guitars come in followed by Muzak strings. Jewel resultantly
still seems to be aiming low: She could have been Joni Mitchell: instead
she aims to be Sheryl Crow (another monstrous waste of talent) or
Shania Twain and ends up somewhere around her mark. She tries to rock
out but does so unconvincingly and to her detriment. Ultimately, she
needed a producer like say Rick Rubin to do what Rubin did for Johnny
Cash, strip her songs bare and let their simplicity and honesty shine
through. The producer, Rob Cavallo (Green Day, the new-Jewel Michelle
Branch, Goo Goo Dolls) does a poor job here: the production is pristine
but to the detriment of the songs. The pop production works: this
is an album best heard loud in your car. Only, it renders the deepest
of lyrics, trite. He also does not rein in his co-producer Jewel:
Every rock cliché is touched and ticked off. For most of the
songs you know what is going to come, way before you even hear it.
Trite song structures are to blame.
The songs themselves are a mixed bag: 'Good Day', the second single
is amazing. It features some of Jewel's best lines ('As it is, I might
watch TV/ Cause it's nice to see people more messed up than me') and
her sense of playfulness shines through as well ('Can you drink me
like water? / Say I'm like the desert, just hotter') Pity it flopped.
'Fragile Heart' is intimate, poppy and has the charm of a teen poem,
which is possibly what it originally was. 'Where You Are' dabbles
with slow synth beats and still works.
'Queen of the Last Dance Rodeo' is poetic and soft, for most part.
It suffers problems common to most of the other songs here, big choruses
that kill the effect of the more intimate heartfelt verses. 'Drive
to You' in contrast to the aforesaid is a poor song. The formula and
the lyrics have been done better by others and several times before.
'I Drove All Night' as covered by Cyndi Lauper comes to mind. Such
are Jewel's instincts these days, it will probably be the next single
and flop like the other two off the album.
Comparatively, Jewel is more convincing with her forays into pop than
rock. Only one too rocks hard but not hard enough and is without sass
or edge a la Alanis Morrisette. She just ends up highlighting her
limitations. 'Words Get in The Way' fares much better as it is coy.
Some bad lyrics appear ('There is a hole in my pillow/ where you used
to be/ it feels like a hole/ in the middle of me') mixed in with good.
On balance, the song is a joyous paen a la the best Shania Twain songs
to domesticity: problem is that it proclaims 'Words get in the way'
when in the past Jewel once aspired and promised to be a poet; Shania
Twain was always quite simply Shania.
Vocally Jewel is still quite awesome – she majored in Operatic
voice from the prestigous Interlochen Arts Academy, Michigan –
her vocal range is unmatched in rock. While there are moments otherwise
on the album – often due to the clunky material – vocally,
'1,000 Miles Away' is a stunning album closer. It is also the most
resonant songs on the album. Stripped bare, it is alternately a declaration
of alienation and an affecting lament, 'God/ what do I do/ I am a
thousand miles away/ lying next to you.' The performance is heart-rending:
The goosebump inducing scream near the end of the song, as the music
drops away, where Jewel sustains her vocals, almost breaking down,
is all on its own worth the price of admission. It shows what intense
art Jewel remains still capable of.
The rehabilitation of Jewel Kilcher starts here. Hopefully. Whether
it takes root or is a passing fancy, still remains to be seen. On
evidence of the latest showing, Goodbye Alice in Wonderland may not
be her greatest, but in patches rises to equal her best and reminds
the listener of her great promise.
*YUCK
**WHATEVER
***GOOD
****SUPER
*****AWESOME
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