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39 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Raw, Driving Talent, April 16, 2005
I have owned this CD since it was released several years ago. This is an excellent example of how powerful a minimalistic style of music can be. Jewel's debut CD ranks up there with the works of Tori Amos and Sarah McLachlan's,matching their drive and angst that allows them to create music that is a pure art form.
I was sorry to see Jewel become more pop with her following releases. I wish she would have followed more in the direction she was trying to go in in "Pieces of You." Her simple style music accompanied with her enchanting voice was a delight to the ears, as well as the soul. Her songs, like Tori Amos's touched on many different important subjects such as poverty, abuse, friendships, drug abuse, prejudice, love, and death.
This CD belongs in any collection of people who enjoy poetic lyrics with a strong message and a purist style of music. Jewel wrote all these songs herself and this album was recorded in a coffee shop in California. It has depth and loads of talent. I just love how simplistic music meshes so well with her breathy vocals and strong lyrics. This CD gets Five stars from me. It is excellent!
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21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
She should stay like this forever!, November 30, 2001
This is a beautiful CD and by far in my opinion the best album ever in a rock genre, and is overall great music compared to any genre. I remember getting this album for my 12th birthday in the summer of 1997 close to when it came out. It still doesn't seem that long ago, really. This album is so good, that no matter how good Jewel's subsequent albums are, this one will always be my favorite. I take this CD everywhere I travel. "Who Will Save Your Soul" is my favorite track and by coincidence her first single. I love it so much and it puts me in a bright-spirited mood at any time of the year, and it'll feel like it's summer again! LOVE IT, LOVE IT, LOVE IT! Don't let this one song fool you, because it isn't relevent to the rest of the album. The rest of the album is just as good, but more mellow, folky and alternative with her acoustic guitar as the main instrument. (Play that thang, girl!) But just with her guitar and vocals, she can pass any song as good. But because these songs are too mellow for pop radio, "You Were Meant For Me" and "Foolish Games" (a piano song, not guitar) had to be rerecorded. The "You Were Meant For Me" radio version is better than the album one, but with "Foolish Games" vice-versa. Jewel is a musical genius: her pretty, sweet, and wide-range vocals, her instrument-playing, and especially her songwriting. (Not to mention other fields like bookwriter, artist and actress) Her lyrics are complex and poetic many times telling stories, yet at the same time I can relate to what she's saying, especially in "I'm Sensitive". "Pieces Of You" (the title track) promotes a clear and obvious anti-discrimmination message. I'll have you know that the songs "Little Sister" and "Daddy" are NOT biographical, Jewel doesn't even have a sister! And when she sings in Daddy, she's certainly not singing about HER dad, but a dysfunctional abusive father of someone she knew growing up. Jewel's father was very kind and SO wasn't racist (referring to the line about the "white hood"), otherwise I don't think he'd marry a person who was part Native American. (Jewel's dad is Swiss [explains his love for yodeling] and her mom's Swiss and Inuit. She IS from Alaska, you know. Or so I've read somewhere.) It's hurtful to think that someone would actually think she was singing about her real father. She and him have always had a good relationship, he's the one she and her brothers lived with most of the time when her parents divorced. Anyway, I'll get back to the subject on her album. I'm also really fond of the album flap, it includes a bunch of pictures of Jewel at her cutest and best, along with some sample poetry and lyrics. I would review the whole album track to track and make further comments, but that would take days because I'd be blabbing on and on about how good each one of the songs is, so I'll stop here. But if you don't have a soft spot in your heart for a mellower side of music, I suggest that you don't buy this because you'll think it's too boring.
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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant, moving, and wondrous debut, December 16, 2005
Years now since I first heard the opening track, but still I remember the thrill I felt at its soaring, apostolic tone and its stunningly relevant lyrics about keeping oneself rooted amid the shallow bustle of life. That Jewel was so young when she wrote and performed that masterpiece speaks even today of the power of her talent and creativity.
And that the rest of the cd almost is as good still amazes me. "Pieces of You" and "Near You Always" are wonderful songs that will sneak right into your heart. But there are others, like "Foolish Games", with its heartbreaking, terribly accurate depiction of grief, love, and loss, "I'm Sensitive", with its anthem to hope and the heart, and "You Were Meant For Me", which is as breathtaking, powerful, and raw a musical expression of loss and love as any I ever have heard, that simply climb from the marvelous and into the sublime.
Pieces of You may be the most original, deep, and powerful expression of American music since, perhaps, Blue, by Joni Mitchell.
I rarely praise anything this much, but this is simply a great cd in every sense of the word. If, somehow, you've reached this point, almost inconceivably to me, without knowing of its power and richness, I'm delighted for you, because the music on what should become your newest discovery is such that, once you've heard it, you never will forget.
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