Jewel - Goodbye Alice in Wonderland

Genre rock Publisher Atlantic Records External Links Official Jewel Website Official Atlantic Records Website

When Jewel Kilcher came on to the national scene in 1995 with the release of Pieces of You in February of that year, no one could have possibly predicted the enormity of her impending success. In fact, it wasn't until the following year that "Who Will Save Your Soul" Jewel's first big smash, even charted. I remember picking up Pieces pretty early on, midway between its release and when the nation discovered it. I bought four or five copies and gave them to friends and family members, that's how enchanted I was by Jewel's voice, words, and music.

Here was a singer near my own age (she just recently celebrated her 32nd birthday), who was beautiful and who sang songs about being "sensitive" in a tender voice evoking the melancholy and sadness that seemed to blanket my mid-20s. To say I was mesmerized would be putting it mildly. I was in awe of her ability to speak to me simply and provocatively, sometimes bordering on the edge of youthful histrionics, but spearing my heart nonetheless. She was my generation's Joni Mitchell or Rickie Lee Jones (both of whom Jewel owes a large debt) and I was in love with her. Deep love.

And my love continued, even when the success that I (for real) prayed she would have came. Jewel became a giant figure in the pop music world. Pieces sold millions upon millions and was still going strong when her follow-up, Spirit was released.

Spirit abandoned the beautiful simplicity of Pieces for full band arrangements and an embraced adult contemporary aesthetic. Nothing wrong about that, but Spirit, by and large, lacked the immediacy of its predecessor and was the first indication that perhaps Jewel didn't have the chops to write material as consistently strong. Sure "Hands," "Down So Long" and "Jupiter" were all good songs ("Down So Long" fared much better in a live setting), but when I think of how many times I played Pieces to the number of times I spun every subsequent release by Jewel, the scales are extremely tipped in Pieces' favor.

After Spirit I admit that I gave Jewel away to the adult contemporary crowd. I didn't bother with her poetry CDs (though I did get A Night Without Armour in book form for Christmas that year), listened to 2001's This Way maybe three times before giving up on it and never bothered to track down 0304 despite loving her shaking things up with that album's big hit single "Intuition, a great pop single with a video that poked fun at the form's audacity.

Now it's 2006, more than ten years after I first went head over heels for Ms. Kilcher. Her newest release, Goodbye Alice In Wonderland finds her going back to the adult contemporary milieu found on This Way, and the results are pretty much the same. Plaintive singing, benign lyrical follies about not being able to sleep and watching TV because "it's nice to see people can be more messed up than me" ("Good Day") and Jewel's ubiquitous slam on society ("Satellite"), along with tepid instrumentation and generally lazy melodies are all on display here. Jewel hasn't progressed from her na¯ve folkie beginnings, she's regressed. She's as spit-shined and pigeon-holed as the singers she mocked in "Intuition's" video. What's more is she is the one to hold responsible. Her albums have sold well enough to ensure her creative pursuits be free of executive meddling. But here she is, VH1'd to the nines. Along with recent regressions by her contemporaries Sheryl Crow and Liz Phair, Jewel has made a career worst album.

I like adult contemporary, quite frankly. Maroon 5 are but one prime example of an artist that knows how to craft graceful yet syrupy songs that capture the minds of the supposed white middle class of the nation. I'm down with dopey love songs when they're done well. But Jewel doesn't do this sort of thing nearly as well as when she speaks from her heart. By the time the stunning, stripped-down beauty of "1000 Miles Away" closes the album one almost wants to take every critique back and forgive Ms. Kilcher wholeheartedly. "1000 Miles Away" feels like a lost cousin to the tracks found on Pieces of You. It's simplicity is heartbreaking, Jewel's vocals even moreso. But when cycling back through the previous twelve tracks, that irritation comes tumbling back and forgiveness is put back on the shelf for another day. I refuse to give up hope that Jewel will regain the solid ground she once held on to so fiercely. It's in her, I know it. "1000 Miles Away," however fleeting it is, is the proof. I will wait for her.