Jewel's 'Spirit' displays maturity

It's been four years since we've heard anything new come out of the pouty-shaped mouth of this Alaskan singer-songwriter and for good reason.

Jewel's debut, 1994's Pieces Of You, just kept selling and selling and selling -- 10 million copies worldwide and counting -- delaying her much-anticipated followup.

Thankfully, her 13-track sophomore effort, which finally hits stores on Tuesday with famed producer Patrick Leonard (Madonna) behind the console, was more than worth the wait.

Jewel, who supposedly had a list of 15 different producers from which to choose, expands upon her traditional folk-pop sound with a variety of instrumentation --- piano, keyboards, pedal steel guitar, B3 organ, cello, mandolin, 12-string guitar -- and more mature lyricwriting overall.

Even her little-girl voice has matured to the point that this album sounds downright sophisticated compared to the Elly May Clampett-like emoting heard on some of the Pieces Of You tracks.

As the singer herself has pointed out herself about a million times, she was only 16 and 17 years old when she composed the songs for Pieces Of You, so give her a break.

Certainly, a couple of years of fame and fortune has forced Jewel to grow up quicker than most as she has struggled to deal with the transition from her poverty-ridden life of living in a van to becoming a multi-platinum artist with money to burn.

Take, for example, the sentiments on the pretty-sounding opening track, Deep Water, as she recalls: "And you wake up to realize your standard of living somehow got stuck on survive," the more uptempo Down So Long: "The wind blows cold when you reach the top, It feels like someone's face is stuck to the bottom of my shoe, and the trippier Barcelona: "Super paranoid, I'm blending, I'm blurring, I'm bleeding into the scenery."

More often than not though, Jewel ponders matters of the heart on such standout love songs as What's Simple Is True, Kiss The Flame and Jupiter.

It's when she gets bogged down on weightier subjects that Jewel doesn't quite succeed, like on the first single, Hands: "If I could tell the world just one thing, it would be that we're all OK," or Innocence Maintained: "We've made houses for hatred, It's time we made a place, Where people's souls may be seen and made safe."

Also if you get the strange feeling that you've heard some of these songs before, like the stripped-down, acoustic numbers, Fat Boy and Enter From The East, you have. Jewel has performed both in concert in Toronto over the last couple of years.

An interesting sidebar is the bonus track, This Little Bird, which features Jewel and her mother-manager Nedra Carroll, who possesses a deep, warm voice of her own, singing an a cappella duet.

Track Listing 1. Deep Water 2. What's Simple Is True 3. Hands 4. Kiss The Flame 5. Down So Long 6. Innocence Maintained 7. Jupitor 8. Fat Boy 9. Enter From The East 10. Barcelona 11. Life Uncommon 12. Do You 13. Absence Of Fear 14. This Little Bird - (additional track)		Album rating