Soot and Stars
I AM SOOT!
Jewel Official Website
Discography:
1995 Pieces of You
1998 Spirit
1999 Joy: A Holiday Collection
2001 This Way
2003 0304
2006 Goodbye Alice in Wonderland
2008 Perfectly Clear
2008 Lullaby (children's music)
2010 Sweet and Wild
2011 The Merry Goes 'Round (children's music)
I loved Jewel! Don't get me wrong I still do but at one point I was all about Jewel. I was such a fan I bought everything from her including her book of poetry. It wasn't until now where she released an album of lullabies that I had to say "O.K. Jewel! I totally supported your pop move, your country album and even bought your fricking Christmas album but I'm not buying lullabies for toddlers!"
So my big confession here is I not only liked Jewel for her music. IMO Jewel was HOT as hell. Yep, I had a Jewel crush way before my Jessica Alba obsession ever thought of starting! Anyway, besides hormones I honestly loved Jewels music as well and I wasn't the only one. People I knew whether it be male, female, jock, geek, goth, grease monkey, etc. all dug a little Jewel while I was in high school. This simple little Alaskan vocalist and part time yodeler strumming her acoustic guitar had just charmed a large percent of the population. It was pretty cool IMO and not a phenomenom you see often.
So in all seriousness, I think Jewel is a very talented artist that is a true artist. She's taken a gutsy road through her career and made honest music. Some of her earliest performances on t.v. are still some of the best live performances I've ever seen. I still remember one from VH1 where she debuted all these cool songs since she had a huge back catalog of them anyways. She did a yodeling session with her Dad and a Christmas song with her Mom. It was like even in the big time things were just like a small family affair where she was performing in front of a small bar crowd instead of a massive T.V. audience! I love how Jewel dared to try pop in spite of the unfair criticism. I love how she tried Country as well. I loved in general how she did what she wanted to in an industry where risk means career sabotage. Simply, I think Jewel is a rare artist that somehow blended into and succeeded in an industry that usually chews spits that sort of artist out!
Here's her discography and my notes on each album as well as favored tracks:
Pieces of You
I actually used the quote on this cover for my high school year book! Some of Jewels thoughts/lyrics were so simple and brilliant while others were pure cheese. One thing that really turned me off on this album and gave me a lesson in the "you don't always get what you pay for music industry" was the poor production level on the songs I knew from radio. Jewel had done wicked enhanced versions of You Were Meant For Me and Foolish Games that sounded nowhere near as good on the c.d. which had me peeved! I had to buy the single for You Were Meant For Me and the Batman and Robin SDTRK for Foolish Games to get the right versions. Other than that here are my fav. tracks:
You Were Meant For Me
Foolish Games
Angel Standing By
Painters
Amen
(powerful)
Spirit
A better produced album with some great tracks!
Hands
(next to Foolish Games, my favorite Jewel single, brilliant)
Deep Water
Life Uncommon
(great version)
M