Perfectly Clear

Jewel is a great American voice without an identity. She seems to always want to cash in on whatever genre of music is hot at the moment and the result is bland, uninspired music, that at its source, comes more from a cold corporate soul than from the heart. Listen to her early stuff and you will see just how lost she comes off. If you have ever seen her live performances, she weighs heavily on her roots and comes off much better than her shallow, high-gloss recordings.

Jewel's latest work "perfectly clear" is another turn in genres for Jewel. There are several Good Songs on this album and overall it is pretty Good work. What my problem with jewel is that she has completely removed all other influences (except for country music) from her album. If you are not a fan of Country music you will without a doubt HATE this album. Where Jewel's previous works often incorporated several genres (eg. this way, spirit, pieces of you) all of the songs on perfectly clear have a repetitive/boring country sound (and i am a fan of country music!!). Why must jewel limit herself to 1 genre? I am a huge fan of all her previous albums and own every one but this is the first O.K. jewel album. Hopefully she will come to her senses and make a mixed genre album mixing Country, Pop, Folk, and Rock. I guess we'll have to wait until then.

I buy every record Jewel releases. It always takes me a while to warm up to them. This is probably because she is unpredictable, and that's a good thing. Her voice is always Perfectly Clear. I'll buy the next one too.

I am a fan of Jewel's. Her voice is sweet, sultry, and sexy. She has once again put out anther great album.

Well all right, Jewel most likely decided to do country music this time because of the poor sales of her last cd, 2006's "Goodbye Alice In Wonderland". I have all of Jewel's cds, and I like her talent, but sometimes she's off the mark. "Perfectly Clear" is okay. It's no Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton or even Carrie Underwood. A good idea to utilize John Rich (of Big & Rich) to help produce, but the results just kind of lie there.

"Perfectly Clear" is unmoving all the way through. Background music. Average Jewel. A valiant attempt that didn't quite succeed, but also not a complete failure. The songs are pleasant, and they come and go without a second thought. After listening all week, I didn't feel there was a true pop or country hit on this disc. Jewel is capable of some very good music like "Who Will Save Your Soul?", "Hands", "Standing Still", "Intuition" and "Good Day". There aren't any songs like these on "Perfectly Clear".

Now don't get me wrong, some of the songs have good melodies like "I Do", "Love Is A Garden", "Thump, Thump", "Perfectly Clear" and "Stronger Woman", but overall things are rather bland here.

That being said, I know I'm going to anger many Jewel fans, but I still think it was quite daring (and excellent) what she did on "0304". Fans felt she sold out, but I saw it as artistic growth. For some reason, Jewel retreated, almost afraid of what she had done and seemingly from the negative reaction of her fans, but fans should not hamper an artist's creative juices. For Jewel, "Perfectly Clear" isn't far off from what she started with on "Piece Of You", so I don't understand the reviews saying that she's sold out, or that she's terrible doing country music. Folk music isn't that different from country music.

The problem isn't that Jewel went country. The problem is that she didn't deliver the goods. There aren't any hits here. The cd is pleasant, but lifeless. It's like eating and ice cream--tastes good, but ultimately it's empty calories.

Next time, I'd like to see Jewel do something daring with her folk roots. She should take a page from John Mellencamp. He has demonstrated that he knows how to blend folk, pop, rock, blues, hip hop, country into something magical and all his own. Jewel really needs to step up to the plate at this point in her career.