Review Summary: Jewel tries to stand for lyrical integrity, despite fears that she’s giving in to commercialism.
Picture it – it’s 2003, your last album was two years ago, and your record label is pushing you to make another breakthrough. That’s the situation Jewel was in when writing and recording “0304”, a radical shift from her previous efforts in a vain attempt to gain popularity and appease Atlantic records for a couple of years to come. With Jewel stood on the album cover brushing her “flawless” blonde hair, dressed like an extra in a Missy Elliot video, fans of this folk-pop 90’s chick will surely be in for a surprise.
“This album may seem different to you”, warns Jewel in the front pamphlet of the album, and after listening to it, it’s easy to see why. Gone are the fingerpicked guitar strings and the folky “swung” time signatures – this album is as close to anything Jewel has done before as we are to landing on Mars. “0304” uses many layers of dance-oriented beats and synthesisers to hook the listener, as opposed to just Jewel's soprano vocals and her acoustic guitar. And clearly, Jewel changed her style knew what was popular in 2003. Or so she thought, as many of her former fans were not happy with her drastic change in direction.
Listening to “0304” though, it’s easy to see that the “heart” of Jewel is still in the right place. “Intuition”, the album’s main single, is lyrically brilliant – or ironic, depending on how you look at it. Jewel tells you to “follow your heart”, before taunting you to “sell your sin, just cash in” – and that’s what most people missed about “0304”. It’s not a typical dance album, as Jewel is clearly mocking the pop music scene and everything to do with it. She knows that “Miss J’s big butt” is exactly what she’s selling, not her music, her body – and that’s what Jewel’s poking fun at ever so well. Here, she’s not giving in to commercialism – she’s using it against itself.
“Stand”, another single from the album, is similar. It speaks of “children paying bills” and how “so much violence ends in silence”. Jewel’s talks about the irony of the world and its’ corruption and injustice. It’s strangely similar to the Black Eyed Peas’ “Where is the Love?”, but it still stands on its own two feet as a single. “2 Become 1” – not a cover of the Spice Girls’ song – is another song where we see glimpses of “Pieces of You” and “Spirit”. It’s a country-pop ballad about Jewel spending a moment with another lover, and it’s really as heartfelt as “You Were Meant for Me”. It doesn’t have the impact of her previous singles, and it’s certainly lost some of the honesty with the overdone production - but it’s classic “Jewel”, and underneath everything, Jewel’s musical integrity is still there.
I wish I could go on praising “0304” like this, but I can’t, because though some Jewel’s lyrical genius is still here, it does seem like – for the most part, at least – that Jewel traded in what she was purely to sell an album. Tracks like “U&Me=Love” really alienated Jewel’s fanbase purely to sell records to the mass market. “Disco lights and buff bodies are nice” Jewel sings. “Batteries are fine, but I'm energized all the time”; most of Jewel’s attempts to be current sound more like an uncomfortable Britney Spears than a mature singer-songwriter we know her as. "Run 2 U" is similar, lyrically. “With your arms stretched out, baby, drunk on wine/you know it feels so good, like it should” Jewel sings – you can tell why fans of Jewel were disappointed. She’s traded in thought-provoking lyrics about human nature for cheesy, thoughtless lyrics sounding more at home in a teenage girls’ bedroom. As much as I can accept that the basis of Jewel is the same here, there’s times when you really question whether Jewel’s change really did benefit her career, or whether it made her seem just like another Jennifer Lopez wannabe.
Jewel claimed that the irony in the album – what was mostly overlooked – was that she was spoofing the pop music industry, and that the lyrics of the song still remain as good as those on her earlier albums. Tracks like “Intuition” seem to do this very well, with clever, sarcastic lyrics and a sense of irony, but other tracks just seem to lose the whole “Jewel” vibe we’ve come to know and love. She seemed to do this for the publicity, and it worked – it reached number two on the Billboard 200 – but you have to stop to ask yourself “at what cost”? “0304” wasn’t as poor as many made it out to be, and it does have its’ high points, but coming from the folk-pop star responsible for songs as strong as “Foolish Games” and “Hands”, it does leave you wonder why Jewel chose to make such a drastic change in direction. Jewel, we can forgive you for “0304”, but for the love of God – please don’t do something like this again
