Sweet and Wild

Artist: Jewel
Label: Valory Music / Universal
Website: jeweljk.com

A lot of people may know Jewel from her song ‘Intuition’, but she has in fact been on the music scene for fifteen years now, with Sweet and Wild being her ninth album. It continues the country music style that was first realised in her 2008 album, Perfectly Clear. A singer-songwriter with a gorgeous voice, Jewel has often experimented with her music, but this latest offering tends to play it safe.

For the most part this is your typical country affair, from the guitar riffs and drum beats, to the lyrics all about cigarette smoke and bars. The album starts strongly with ‘No Good in Goodbye’, an upbeat intro that sets up the rest. ‘Fading’ is an intriguing song for both its often amusing lyrics and dynamic in-and-out sound. But after some initial peaks, the album reverts to exactly what you would expect on any other western track list. The melodies do end up feeling rather samey, but thankfully Jewel has written some great lines amongst it all, such as “Trying not to forget/Stupid things like the color of rain/And the smell of stone when it's wet”.

What picks the album up is Jewel’s voice. It’s a very distinct sound, one that rises and falls, slows and speeds up, all with a certain ease and smoothness. Her singing manages to add more tempo and variation to otherwise bland music. The album finishes on a high note, particularly with the delightful ‘Ten’ (which happens to be the tenth track on the album) with its amusing truisms on love and relationships. Jewel is cheeky and charming, and it really shows in her voice.

In the end what makes Sweet and Wild a (slight) cut above the rest is the songwriting and the delivery of those words. At the same time it’s probably only for fans of Jewel and fans of the genre. The theme of sweet yet wild resonates through the album, which is a testament to the heart put in by the artist.

James Farrell