| Pieces of
You Jewel Kilcher |
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This young lady has been getting a lot of exposure lately (which may or may not have had a lot to do with the transparent gown she wore to the Grammy Awards). Anyway, sales for her album have been slow but steady, and people are becoming more aware of her. That's good -- she's a very fine singer -- but some of her songs could use some help.
People gave Alanis Morisette the title of "angry young female" but if that's true, then Jewel deserves the title of dangerous young female. Why? In one song she's saying "Let's go back to bed." and in another she asking if you want to kick in some guy's teeth. Or after saying "you were meant for me, and I was meant for you" she's threatening to cut out someones heart. Alanis may have had a lot of angst, but this babe (who wrote a included a poem about her breasts in the liner notes) is truly bloodthirsty. I suppose that's why those songs haven't been released as singles yet -- if ever.
If there was ever a singer who needs a collaborator, Jewel is one. She has a truly fantastic voice -- take the best qualities of Kate Bush, Nancy Griffiths, Mariah Carey, Toni Braxton, and anyone else you can think of -- put them all together, and you get something that isn't Jewel, but sure sounds like her. And the songs that the label had redone in the studio with another producer are quite good (and also happen to be the singles released so far) -- it's the stuff that was recorded live from her coffee house appearances that seem too much like filler. Some people just have too narrow a perspective to produce their own work -- even Suzanne Vega didn't do the best job (and she was only co-producer on Days of Open Palm, her poorest performing release). This tape is so so. The next one could be fantastic -- here's hoping.
ed. note: thanks to Amanda for pointing out that I had Jewel's name wrong