Atlantic
Pop, 2001

Jewel comes this close to abandoning her missionary-snooze pop in This Way – the lyrics of the songs here won’t give off icky pretentious vibes as much as her previous works. But unfortunately, really bland and uninteresting tunes make this one a tiresome chore on the ears.

Jewel’s sound is getting more country, but country here is more often than not tuneless guitar twangs where our earnest but saccharine lady coos over uninspired blandness like:

I wanna tell you everything
I wanna make your toes curl
You’ll be my only boy
And I’ll be your only girl

Yeah yeah, whatever. Be off with you.

The only song that comes close to being memorable is the mediocre Standing Still, where Jewel sounds like a cheap knock-off of that lady from The Cranberries. It’s not great, but it’s the best this dull collection of songs has to offer.