Amazon.co.uk Review
It's time for an update of our image of Jewel, the ingenue who set the music world on fire with her 1995 debut album,
Pieces of You. After all, that effort consisted primarily of songs Jewel had written several years before, some of them dating back to her days as a free- spirited waif living in a van on the beach in San Diego. Now, at 25, she's become a sort of guru for self-expression and full disclosure, revealing perhaps too much of herself in see-through dresses worn to awards shows and a critically drubbed (yet bestselling) book of poetry.
Spirit makes plain why Jewel's well-intentioned yet sometimes facile lyrics strike a chord with her audience while her poetry lies flat on the page. On songs like "Deep Water", "Hands", and "Down So Long", her words are borne aloft by sparkling melodies and her soaring voice, making even the most cynical observer take a schoolgirl-notebook image such as "your heart like grape gum on the ground" or an unreassuring platitude like "If I could tell the world just one thing / It would be that we're all OK" somewhat in stride. On
Pieces of You, Jewel posed the musical question "Who will save your soul?" On
Spirit, it sounds like she wants to do it herself. And the truth is, if you don't overanalyse it, the album does act as a sort of balm for wounded psyches or maybe a primer for raising your own inner child. Maybe she's right and we
are all OK. Who knew?
--Daniel Durchholz
CD Description
Aided by airy but sparkling production by Patrick Leonard, Jewel comforts one and all with this collection. On "Hands",she sings that if she could tell the world just one thing, "It would be that we're all OK". Outside of her multi-octave, crystalline voice, therein lies a large part of Jewel's true appeal--a seemingly boundless compassion. To the Beatles prescription "All You Need Is Love", she adds one more ingredient: "Fill your lives with love and bravery/And you shall lead a life uncommon". While much of her yearning is spiritual and utopian, Jewel is not immune to the call of the flesh. In "Do You" she wants to stay with a lover because their teeth are straight and "the sex is good".
It's not all about words however. There's a hip-hop touch in the rhythm section on "Down So Long", confirmed in the third verse when Jewel raps for about two bars. The natural sounds throughout the CD dominate the subtler synth touches. Acoustic guitar, tasteful wah-wah and spot-on harmonies make this an extremelyintimate, personal sounding release.
