This Way

Jewel’s previous three albums have together sold over 23 million copies worldwide – not bad going for a girl who was once so broke she had to live in her van.

On the evidence of This Way, it’s easy to see where the appeal lies. Jewel is the possessor of a sublime set of vocal cords – she can swoop and soar through the registers while effortlessly evoking a panoply of moods. Her voice is tiny, frail and sweet one moment, confident, cool and aggressive the next.

Musically, Jewel betrays evidence of a country twinge but ultimately tends towards the AOR mainstream.

This is a shame, as the real sparks on this album are found in the quirkier, more rarefied moments. Her melodic progressions on ‘Serve The Ego’ and ‘Jesus Loves You’ are inventive and engaging, while ‘The New Wild West’ showcases a more raw, vitriolic side to Jewel.

Her lyrics, meanwhile, often display both a wide-eyed country charm and a lucidly sarcastic bite. There are some great characters here – “Spivey Leeks was a drip of a man,” she sings, “He looked like a potato shoved into jeans/He recollects it wasn’t that long ago/That he could… make the young girls scream.”

The best of the AOR tunes present – such as the title track and ‘Break Me’ – are straight-ahead anthemic ballads. Nice, but not hugely different from that produced by your average pop/rock clone.

That said, the fact that Jewel sings them with such distinction should enhance daytime radio for some time to come.

Patchy, but appealing.