From: owner-jewel-digest@smoe.org (jewel-digest) To: jewel-digest@smoe.org Subject: jewel-digest V8 #264 Reply-To: jewel@smoe.org Sender: owner-jewel-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-jewel-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk jewel-digest Wednesday, June 11 2003 Volume 08 : Number 264 * If you ever wish to unsubscribe from this digest, send an email to * jewel-digest-request@smoe.org with ONLY the word * unsubscribe in the BODY of the email * . * For the latest news on what Jewel is up to, go to * the OFFICIAL Jewel web site at http://www.jeweljk.com * and click on "calendar" * . * PLEASE :) when you reply to this digest to send a post TO the list, * change the subject to reflect what your post is about. A subject * of Re: jewel-digest V8 #___ gives fellow list readers * no clue as to what your message is about. Today's Subjects: ----------------- [EDA] short shorts and other such prophesizing... cizing? [FreckledAngel@] [EDA] It's official-#2 [Mgsju@aol.com] [EDA] short shots,syncing, dancing. ["Mark Austin" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2003 14:43:30 -0400 From: FreckledAngel@aol.com Subject: [EDA] short shorts and other such prophesizing... cizing? Dave wrote: "The more and more this list becomes about what Jewel wears the less and less I want to be a part of it. Can we try to remember that the reason we were drawn to Jewel in the first place was because of her words and music not because of her hair clothes and makeup?" Dave, lighten up a bit. I think people on this list are clearly fans of Jewel and nobody's being malicious...personally, I am drawn to Jewel for the love and music and her playful and creative way of expressing herself musically....deeply emotional, beautiful voice and songs that hold up, etc...but I think if people want to comment on other things that's fine, too...I mean, I usually ignore that stuff but when michiel posted those pics of Jewel in the short shorts I had take a peek and I thought it was pretty funny that she wore them....not that I give a crap about what she wears for the most part, but clearly she has fun with dressing up and I think people can comment on whtever they want...from the serene to the mundane ... I think we're all here b/c we love Jewel and this is a pretty democratic list I mean as long as people are respectful of each other etc...a little "shallow" commentary here and there never killed anyone...let's take the shallow along with deep, baby. I don't care what color nailpolish she's wearing but those shorts reminded me of that Frog and Toad children's story where Toad is embarrassed to get out of the water with his bathingsuit on and then when he finally gets out Frog and the Turtle and everyone starts laughing 'cause he does look funny.....ok, I digress, but Jewel seems to enjoy playing around with fashion and sometimes she scores big and other times it falls a little flat.....I think the music is the most important thingby without a doubt but hey, she's the one being playful about fashion and people are allowed to banter a bit as long as it's all in good fun...as long as this list doesn't digress totally into what color lipstick she's wearing and I think it's the interviewers that often ask her those kind of dumb questions when she'd rather talk about music and other subjects...but, hey, she's a girl and she's having fun and looking great and doing her thing...whatever's clever... I love that sometimes Jewel is slightly oblivious...it's that ability to stay focused and steadfast with a twinge of naivete and a lot of wisdom as well that makes her so intriguing enough blabbering from me..... ;) ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2003 15:26:33 -0400 From: Mgsju@aol.com Subject: [EDA] It's official-#2 From RollingStone.com Any bad blood between Metallica and their fans following the 2000 Napster debacle seems to have dissipated. Released last Thursday (ahead of schedule to beat bootleggers/conjure hype), St. Anger, the band's first album of new, original material in six years, sold 418,000 copies, according to SoundScan, to debut at Number One. The album's figure is a bit low by the band's standards, but considering that it represents a half-week of sales, it holds up to Metallica's past releases, only 6,000 copies fewer than their last release, 1998's covers record Garage Inc. And while Anger's sales pale in comparison to the band's Nineties' crossover prime -- 1991's Metallica sold 598,000 and 1996's Load moved 680,000 units -- it does suggest that years of band loyalty towards fans (the Napster mess notwithstanding) have earned Metallica a core constituency that shows little sign of erosion. Had Anger been kept caged until its original release date, Jewel would have been this week's chart-topper. Her new electronic-minded 0304 sold 143,000 copies, which was good enough for Number Two. Amid slumping album sales, the figure actually marks a rare increase for the singer-songwriter; her last record This Way sold 140,000 copies at Number Nine two years ago. Other top debuts included Train and Sugar Ray, but both bands will need to start rolling out hit singles for My Private Nation and In the Pursuit of Leisure to match their previous sales successes. The former is off to a better start selling 87,000 copies at Number Six, while the latter, a soundtrack for a summer that hasn't started yet, jumped in at Number Twenty-nine with sales of 32,000. Lonestar's Greatest Hits and John Mellencamp's Trouble No More also posted Top Fifty debuts, at Number Seven (80,000 copies sold) and Number Thirty-one (32,000) respectively. Worthy of note on the DIY front is Gillian Welch's Soul Journey, which sold 10,000 copies at Number 107, issued on Welch's own Acony label, besting first-week figures by albums with major-label muscle, including Dave Gahan's Paper Monsters (Number 127, 8,000 copies sold) and the Eels Shootenanny! (Number 145, 7,500). A rash of new albums make their way into record stores this week, several with shots at a Number One. Radiohead's Hail to the Thief looks like the best bet. The band's last album, 2001's Amnesiac sold 231,000 copies in its first week, and the band and album are receiving the usual reams of press. Steely Dan's Everything Must Go and Luther Vandross' Dance With My Father could also make a move for the top. The former earned a first-week tally of 141,000 copies with 2000's Two Against Nature, and the latter sold 135,000 week one copies of his self-titled album two years ago; a recent stroke and coma might also prompt fans to make a trip out for his latest. And St. Anger, with its first full week in stores, should also register another week of six-figure sales. This week's Top Ten: Metallica's St. Anger; Jewel's 0304; 50 Cent's Get Rich or Die Tryin'; Evanescence's Fallen; the 2 Fast 2 Furious soundtrack; Train's My Private Nation; Lonestar's Greatest Hits; the Lizzie McGuire Movie soundtrack; Led Zeppelin's How the West Was Won; and Kelly Clarkson's Thankful. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2003 19:00:52 -0230 From: "Mark Austin" Subject: [EDA] short shots,syncing, dancing. Oi, I agree its okay to talk about what she wears a little bit now and then, but this list is getting horrible with this stuff lately and all of the build up of it is really starting to piss me off. First of all: << I just saw jewl on conan tonight and noticed one thing. She keeps on doing the same "dance" when she does intuitin. she lifts up her left hand and just puts it up there and does really nothing with it. She kinda twirls it and just kinda shakes. Am i the only one thinking she has no clue how to dance?! It looks annoying as hell when she keeps on putting up her left hand above her head. If she's really into this sexy image, i think she should at least get some kinda of dance instructor and learn how to dance. Her dancing just plain sucks. >> Since when the hell does dancing have to be an issue with Jewel? Shes not about dance. And my thoughts on it anyways: I wouldn't even consider what she did on Conan as much of a dance as just getting into it a bit, lightly shaking. And I really think Jewel has rythm (I cant spell that word -_-). She was beating in tune to the song. Ive seen her just moving her hand about in such a rythmatic ways before as well, I love the little touch. It just shows her getting into the song. I thought it was cute, by the way. Also, she wore short shorts at the NBA? WOW. Its not like we havn't seen that before. Like someone said before she did a concert in just a bikini once in the POY days (ill take their word for it) and I have a video of rockfest 97 where her shorts were MUCH shorter. Yeesh. You act like this is all brand new, but you're just paying more attention to it since the word about her lately is gone more "revealing." I don't get it. I don't think Jewel gets it much either; in a radio interview she found it weird that everyone was saying how sexy the album cover was when it just shows a little belly and her arms. Nothing new there at all. << Every time I have seen Jewel perform "Intuition" it seems like she is lip-synching, what does everybody else here think? Live or Memorex??? >> Live. I've never noticed her lip syncing at all. Why would she have to? Britney does it because shes always dancing too much and frankly not a very good singer to begin with. Jewel has been singing amazingly since she was a little girl. And plus, if you pay attention, the vocals are ALWAYS at least a little bit different in every performance. She would have to of recorded herself singing the same song dozens and dozens of times if she does lip sync, and I don't see where time would even come in to do such a thing. Also, someone posted a comment about their friend thinking possibly Jewel was being ironic and "Britney-like" with her recent performances as a joke... I agree with the album there is a lot of irony, and its an interesting idea, but I really really doubt Jewel would go as far comprimising her performances to do such a thing. I don't even find her performances anything out of the usual. She was smiling, slightly moving with the music, and she sang the song the way it was supposed to be sung. ( I don't know how to explain it, I hope you guys understand.) I saw a recording of her performing 2 become 1 on the early show on CBS and I was thinking "Wow, shes still the exact same Jewel I've always known." Also, I know its perfectly fine and good for people not to like EVERYTHING Jewel and agree you should of voted for the single as your favorite song, not what you thought would be #1. I'm fine with people giving criticism, but I AM DAMN WELL SICK OF SOME PEOPLE HERE DOING NOTHING BUT TRASH HER. Try to at least be a little constructive here. And since when the hell what clothes had to do with music is beyond me. I'm fine commenting and disgussing it now and then, but I think its going a little too far. I don't know how you all feel but right now it seems that the list is focusing more on style than substance, which some people are actually accusing Jewel of doing all the time lately. Thats whats ironic. Tom, I was really liking your review, and can agree with parts of it. But you only reviewed up as far as Fragile Heart... You need to post it all! ;D Sorry for posting in such a way guys, but for a list thats supposed to be for Jewel fans and about music, I'm finding this somewhat agravating. Why can't we have a little more substance in our posts? Peace, Mark _________________________________________________________________ MSN 8 with e-mail virus protection service: 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2003 21:32:39 GMT From: casper31@juno.com Subject: [EDA] jewel desktop Does anyone have any good Jewel desktops? ________________________________________________________________ The best thing to hit the internet in years - Juno SpeedBand! Surf the web up to FIVE TIMES FASTER! Only $14.95/ month - visit www.juno.com to sign up today! ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2003 16:09:47 +0100 From: "Tom H" Subject: [EDA] My 0304 review Okay, that one got sent a bit early- sorry about that to anyone who was reading it... Here's the rest of my review :) After this album didn't instantly grab me, to say the least, I thought I'd leave it for a week before posting a review of it to the list - after all the attacks anyone who dislikes the album seem to be getting. Needless to say, don't bother reading this if you're one of those people who can't handle constructive criticism of your goddess Jewel. 1. Stand - The beat to this song is great, and the intro really made me think that this album was going to be great... Up until the chorus that is. It's the first of many songs on 0304 to have a chorus that totally doesn't fit with the verses. And in this song, it's not just in the sound - lyrically, the verses are great, but the choruses just seem trite and seem like they're only there so they rhyme. I also don't really like Jewel's cutesy girly voice in the chorus - it doesn't suit her. And whoever said that she does this same voice on POY, please listen to that album again. B - this song's okay, I love the beat and it's lyrically great... it's just spoiled by the chorus. 2. Run 2 U - This is a little bit Ray Of Light-ish, and again the verses sound great - but the chorus just comes out of nowhere and sounds pretty bad to me... I love the subtleness of the verses, though, and the transition from chorus to verse, with the sped-up beats. The transition from verse to chorus, however, seems pretty tacky. She does that cutesy voice in the chorus again, and the lyrics really aren't up to Jewel's standard - some of them are okay but the subject's been done before and this doesn't seem all that different. C - I can't get into this song, the beat's a bit annoying and the chorus is a bit embarrassing 3. Intuition - Another case of the verse sounding great (and being pretty good lyrically) and then being ruined by a chorus. Well, we don't have the cutesy voice in this one which helps, but the Shakira-ness of the chorus really doesn't match the Jewel-ness of the verses. C - Another one that just doesn't work for me - the production sounds a bit cheap and the chorus annoys me. 4. Leave The Lights On - Within the first 5 seconds of the song, I knew I was going to like it. Whereas the rest of the songs had really over-the-top production to this point, this song has an understated groove in the background, letting the actually lyrics and melody take over. The lyrics aren't anything incredible, but they definitely fit the song and wouldn't be too out of place in a "normal" Jewel song, as it's very sexual. It definitely has a Portishead vibe going, which is great. The only complaint I have about this song is the line "you can leave the lights on" being done in that annoying girly falsetto voice again. Seriously, Jewel needs to put some "oomph" back into her vocals - on This Way we got the Joplin screams, the soulfulness and the full power of Jewel's voice - on this album all we seem to get is her usual voice the cutesy girly falsetto. There's nothing special there. Why? I do like the little dancey breakdown and rap - I think I'm one of the few EDA's who actually liked 'Under The Water' and this seems like a revisit of that sound... I like it :) A - I can't wait to hear this song live, and I could definitely dance to it in a club - remixes will be good too. 5. 2 Find U - If there was ever a sequel to Standing Still, then this is it. The chorus sounds exactly the same... but it works! I like this one, because it manages to get the dancey pop sound that Jewel wanted without compromising the 'old' Jewel. It makes me smile and nod my head and want to sing along. Again, the lyrics aren't really anything special but they're okay. I really like the creaky noises throughout the song, I don't know why but they work for me :) A - A nice little song that definitely sounds like the Jewel I know and love 6. Fragile Heart - Now, this is a good song. Without the beat this song would fit on any of Jewel's other albums, but the beat sounds great anyway so it can stay. The lyrics are so typical of Jewel it's not even funny - so simple but full of character. Who else would write "all the fishes in the sea could not be happier than me"? The chorus is cool, and definitely captures that 80s vibe in its sound... The only complaint I have is the whistling solo - it just seems out of place and a bit too Disney, but it's not so bad that it takes away too much from the song. The 'careful, warning, fragile heart' part is a nice little nod to the "old" Jewel too. A - I'm forgetting about the whistling solo because I like the rest of the song so much, this is definitely the highlight of the album for me. 7. Doin' Fine - This song doesn't do anything for me. It sounds like its just fragments of songs put together - not only do the verses and the chorus not fit, but the chorus even seems like it's two different songs... I don't know, maybe it's the production, and the song would've been better if it was slower. It definitely seems like a 'filler' song that didn't need to be here. The lyrics are okay, but again nothing special, and the vocals just sound like Jewel wasn't even trying. D - A disappointing song. 8. 2 Become 1 - I really like the lyrics to the verses in this song. While the chorus and verses' sounds really do seem to blend well in this one, lyrically they don't. The whole 'melt into me' and 'two become one' thing has been done before and didn't need to be done once again. I think this song will be a lot better acoustic, because the production just sounds totally wrong, it's all very 80s power-ballad and that doesn't suit Jewel. C - Nice lyrics in the verses, but a sound that doesn't fit at all 9. Haunted - everyone's been raving about this one so I was really looking forward to it. But it didn't excite me all that much. Yeah, it's a really interesting topic to cover, and the lyrics are pretty neat, and it the sound is good too. But I can't help but compare it to that other stalker ballad - i.e. Sarah Mclachlan's Possession - and it just doesn't have the same subtlety and eerieness as that song. I don't know, I think they went for an obvious 'spooky stalker' sound with the production and it could've been done much more subtley to more effect. Oh well, still a good song, and one of the only ones where Jewel actually uses the full power of her voice. B - I think I just had too much expectation for this song that it ended up being a little disappointing. 10. Sweet Temptation - okay, the guitar at the beginning of this song definitely shocked me... it really doesn't sound good at the beginning of the song and I didn't quite understand why's it there other than to catch your attention. It doesn't sound that bad during the song though... I like this one - - nice lyrics all the way through, and it gels well all the way through, both sonically and lyrically... I like the breakdown where Jewel puts on her 'sexy' voice, too :) B - A nice little tune where Jewel actually uses her voice pretty well. 11. Yes U Can - Aaargh - another cheesy guitar riff at the beginning, not quite as bad as the last one though. I like this song a lot, you've kind of got an 80s vibe mixed with a bit of Destiny's Child's "Jumpin Jumpin" - the lyrics are fun and cheeky, which is typical Jewel. The claps are nice too, I can see this one being a hit... I like the little breakdowns towards the end where the lyric "the boys are pale / the girls are soft as nails" is, and also the pared-down chorus. There's a little bit of powerful singing at the end too! But I can't help but think that Jewel seems a little uncomfortable saying "naughty" - it just sounds a bit odd, like she's saying "notty" instead... Hmmm... A - Good, catchy pop song with cheeky lyrics. Should definitely be a single at some points. 12. U & Me = Love - so the beginning sounds like the theme from "The Magic School Bus" crossed with a really bad 80s dance song... And the lyrics are incredibly cheesy, but I have more than an inkling that this is intended and that the song is pretty tongue in cheek... Otherwise I don't think the whole "U & m-e spells l-o-v-e 2 me" bit would be there... The chorus sounds so tacky too, but in a way it's endearing. The whole cheesyness of the song seems very fun and it makes me smile and laugh... Some of the lyrics are pretty obviously double entendres too, which satisfies my dirty 19 year-old mind :P. B - It's so cheesy that I should hate it, but it's fun and I somehow like it. 13. America - Definitely one of the best songs on the album. The lyrics are fun but with a serious edge that works really well, the breaks in the track sound silly but fun. I really like the 'Polanski's banned in America' line and the 'we love Spam in America' line... and the trucking/fucking line with the bleeped out word is pretty funny if as I imagine it was done on purpose. A - A fun, lyrically interesting song. This is what the whole album should've been like - Jewel doing what she does best but with an interesting, playful sound behind it. Sometimes it is like that, and sometimes it didn't work. Here, it definitely did. 14. Becoming - So the album ends with a less-than-impressive ballad. The lyrics are really good if you can get past the incredibly boring production to hear them. I'm sorry but this song really was ruined by turning it into a Britney-style ballad. C - I really, really like the lyrics, but the production is horrible. Okay, that's it. Overall, it's not a "bad" album by any standards. I'd give it a C, which means that if it wasn't by Jewel I probably would never have bought it. By far the best song on the album is "Fragile Heart", which reminds me of POY-era Jewel so much despite its production. I can't wait to hear an acoustic version of this and I would love to hear an edit without the whistling, too, hehe. All in all, I'm not overly disappointed with this CD, Jewel's not done too badly with this new sound and it'll do well for her... I just hope she returns to a more organic sound with the next album because it would be a shame to see her talent go to waste on a sound like this. There's never been songs that I would really want to skip before on a Jewel album, but there's 5 on here which I wouldn't be sorry about never hearing again. Of course, there's four or five songs that I would definitely like to hear again, so there you go. The album's hit and miss, but it's okay. Jewel's not gone completely off the deep end, but it would be nice to see her do something a little more unique next time around. Thanks to everyone who got this far with reading this - make sure to write back and tell me what you think, whether you agree/disagree, etc... However, please be constructive and don't start moaning at me simply because I disagree with you - you won't change my mind and the whole 'Jewel can do no wrong' thing is getting boring now. Cheers, Tom NP - Elton John 'Rocket Man' ------------------------------ End of jewel-digest V8 #264 ***************************