Oh Three, Oh Sure!

0304 falls late on the adolescent Britany dance pop diva movement, and by all rights, Jewel’s spontaneous mid-career genre shift should be blown off as an attempt to leap on a giant pink bandwagon powered by NutraSweet and naval piercings. But whatever your opinion on her past music, Jewel is smart. Lyrically, her tongue is planted in her cheek and her Alaskan folk tinged take on urban music inexplicably works. The new voluptuous hair and vinyl hot pants aside, Jewel is as opinionated and honest as on previous albums. It’s just a matter of this record being written “4 U” instead of “for you”.The single, “Intuition” should be the big clue that Jewel is probably fucking with us; it sounds like an air-headed dance party, musically, but attacks the commercialism of pop culture. The sweet guitar hook and provocative lyrics layered over a danceable “Yes U Can” is the album’s shining track.
It’s obvious that Jewel needed help from producers, electric drums, and hairspray to actually go to that pink place that is teen pop for this album, but Jewel proves to be a strong, versatile voice in pop, even if we get the feeling that she’s fucking with us.