*** Jewel

SPIRIT

(Atlantic)

Jewel's a poet the way Michael Stipe is a photographer or Jerry Garcia was a painter: she's a pop star with a nifty little hobby. In other words, it's nice to have her back singing rather than publishing poetry. And it's really best not to subject the lyrics on her new Spirit to anything in the way of close textual analysis, to focus instead on the textural beauty of her supple and pillowy melismatic contralto. In fact, with nonsense purple poesy like "Pale on the horizon/Like leaves frozen in the snow/Our two shadows merge inseparably" ("What's Simply Is True") and unintentionally amusing imagery like "When you're standing in deep water/And you're bailing yourself out with a straw" ("Deep Water") littering these otherwise tidy folk-pop soundscapes, bypassing the lyrics altogether isn't a bad idea. Especially since, like Alanis, Jewel seems to have equated religious awakening with artistic growth. (Is Marx really that out of fashion?) At least hers appears to be a Western god rather than the California-trendy new-age Eastern psycho-pap bulldonkey that Alanis has latched onto. And though in her attempt to make a serious artistic statement Jewel irons out some of the playful wrinkles that made Pieces of You such a nice fit for her Downy-soft voice, she hasn't forsaken the Ivory-scrubbed innocence and girl-next-door charm that made her America's favorite respite from the storm of angry young women in the '90s.

-- Matt Ashare