Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great voice finds variety, November 29, 2001
I have been a Jewel fan since her first album, and this new album is definitely my favorite of her's thus far. The first cd had only a few tracks which stuck out to me really well and the second cd's songs, though enjoyable, all ran together in a sortof sappy soup. THIS WAY however has a myriad of different styles and each stands out on its own.
1. Standing Still: the first single, as you probably know...i like this song, it's very catchy and fun
2. Jesus Loves You: the lyrics are thought-provoking but this song doesn't do much for me..
3. Everybody Needs someone Sometime: This is just a fun song about finding love, even if you are "a drip of a man" or "no spring chicken"...one of her off-beat, story telling songs
4. Break Me: back to the slow, light song reminiscent of SPIRIT. It's light but sensual at the same time
5. Do You Want To Play?: This song is a little edgier and kindof playful (hence the title) but still has that deepness if you listen to the lyrics...and she does this interesting vocal screech in the background near the end, which is different, but fun to hear
6. Till We Run Out of Road: Jewel wrote this for her boyfriend, Ty Murray, and it's a very sweet song..a little bit country, a little bit romance..i like this one a lot
7. Serve the Ego: definitely my favorite..its got Middle Eastern flavor, but is edgy too, and makes great use of the range of her vocal talents
8. This Way: the title track is catchy, but not one of her lyrical masterpieces. I like it though, because its just light and nice, although her voice gets a little baby-like at times.
9. Cleveland: another one of my favorites..its romantic but has an edgy country flavor to it. its been criticized as being too country, but i think that having it adds a little bit of her current life (she is dating a rodeo man, for goodness sake)to what we are used to
10. I Won't Walk Away: very soft and sweet...this is a great tribute to true love
11. Love Me, Just Leave Me Alone: This one has a gritty, angst-ridden quality to it. It makes a great foil for previous song...and, of course, the scream near the end comes as a shock, but it shows that Jewel is branching out a bit.
12. The New Wild West: A great tribute to our ever-shrinking wilderness...its got a very sad undercurrent to it, but the chorus is catchy and edgy
13. Grey Matter: the first of two live bonus tracks..this is nice, but a little to slow and airy for me.
14. Sometimes It Be That Way: In the beginning of this, she forgets her lyrics and has to let the audience help her...which is hilarious! the rest of the song is nice and playful, but i mostly like listening to the beginning to get a laugh!It's not perfect, but what album is? Overall, this cd is a joy to listen to and i highly recommend it to everyone. It shows different sides to Jewel (through the differing song styles and through a very interesting section in the insert that tells what each song is about/where it was written, etc.) Each song stands alone and shows the variety of range and style that this great singer can achieve.
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34 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Finally, a solid release from Jewel!, November 13, 2001
Okay, I'll be honest. I am a Jewel fan, and would probably listen to her reading the Oxford dictionary. That said, her first two albums, Pieces of You and Spirit, were far from perfect. Pieces of You was understandly amateurish and rough-edged, while Spirit was too mellow and overproduced. Neither even compare with her excellent live repertoire, and they sadly gather dust in my CD collection....Which brings us to This Way. This album knocks my socks off! It's rougher-edged and more natural than Spirit; you can tell that Jewel is for the first time truly comfortable in the studio. Her vocal prowess is evident in many songs, especially "Love Me Just Leave Me Alone," in which she lets out a Janis Joplin-esque scream. No more restrained, play-it-safe stylings for our favorite folk singer. If there's one thing Jewel consistently nails, it is the art of the love song. In "I Won't Walk Away," Jewel sings "Wrong or right / Be mine tonight / Harsh world be damned / We'll make a stand / Love can bind / But mine is blind / Others stray / But I won't walk away." Just hearing her beautiful lyrics combined with the rich tonal quality of her voice and the romance-tinged music is enough to set you into a dazed stupor. Jewel also hasn't lost her sense of reality, leaving in a slight guitar screw-up at the beginning of live bonus track "Sometimes It Be That Way," which is evident throughout the whole album. Almost every track was recorded live with a band in the studio, unlike the numerous vocal layerings and smooth-over approaches of most recording artists. This gives an almost live atmosphere to the album. Overall, This Way is an amazing album and is destined to be looked back as one of the highlights of Jewel's career.
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Finally!, November 20, 2001
Ever since I heard Jewel's debut album, I have been waiting for her to release something that you could put on and enjoy all the way through. After a yawn of a sophomore album, she did it.
On this album, Jewel not only lightened up (as many have already noted), she finally utilized her biggest strength - her powerful voice. Very rarely on this album do you hear her whisper over her guitar. She belts out these songs beautifully, allowing her emotion to carry the album - which, in my opinion, was the missing ingredient in her other two releases.
This album has many different sounds on it, keeping the listener interested all the way through. There is some country twang in Everybody Needs Somebody Sometime and Till We Run Out of Road, a fun pop sound to Standing Still and Serve the Ego, and her wonderful folk sound in Jesus Loves Me. All of the tracks have something to offer.
The low points come at the end of the album. New Wild West is the one track in which she forgets to lighten up, and sounds like it was a reject from her last album - and sounds very out of place on this one. While I do love to get bonus material, the two live tracks would have been better saved for a live album down the road. They just don't sound quite right here, on this up-beat album.
I still gave this five stars because, all in all, this is an excellent album with so many wonderful songs, and different styles, that I believe you would have a hard time not finding something on the album worth the price of purchase.
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