Search - Jewel :: Pieces of You

She should stay like this forever!

zooropaflygirl | USA | 11/30/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is a beautiful CD and by far in my opinion the best album ever in a rock genre, and is overall great music compared to any genre. I remember getting this album for my 12th birthday in the summer of 1997 close to when it came out. It still doesn't seem that long ago, really. This album is so good, that no matter how good Jewel's subsequent albums are, this one will always be my favorite. I take this CD everywhere I travel. "Who Will Save Your Soul" is my favorite track and by coincidence her first single. I love it so much and it puts me in a bright-spirited mood at any time of the year, and it'll feel like it's summer again! LOVE IT, LOVE IT, LOVE IT! Don't let this one song fool you, because it isn't relevent to the rest of the album. The rest of the album is just as good, but more mellow, folky and alternative with her acoustic guitar as the main instrument. (Play that thang, girl!) But just with her guitar and vocals, she can pass any song as good. But because these songs are too mellow for pop radio, "You Were Meant For Me" and "Foolish Games" (a piano song, not guitar) had to be rerecorded. The "You Were Meant For Me" radio version is better than the album one, but with "Foolish Games" vice-versa. Jewel is a musical genius: her pretty, sweet, and wide-range vocals, her instrument-playing, and especially her songwriting. (Not to mention other fields like bookwriter, artist and actress) Her lyrics are complex and poetic many times telling stories, yet at the same time I can relate to what she's saying, especially in "I'm Sensitive". "Pieces Of You" (the title track) promotes a clear and obvious anti-discrimmination message. I'll have you know that the songs "Little Sister" and "Daddy" are NOT biographical, Jewel doesn't even have a sister! And when she sings in Daddy, she's certainly not singing about HER dad, but a dysfunctional abusive father of someone she knew growing up. Jewel's father was very kind and SO wasn't racist (referring to the line about the "white hood"), otherwise I don't think he'd marry a person who was part Native American. (Jewel's dad is Swiss [explains his love for yodeling] and her mom's Swiss and Inuit. She IS from Alaska, you know. Or so I've read somewhere.) It's hurtful to think that someone would actually think she was singing about her real father. She and him have always had a good relationship, he's the one she and her brothers lived with most of the time when her parents divorced. Anyway, I'll get back to the subject on her album. I'm also really fond of the album flap, it includes a bunch of pictures of Jewel at her cutest and best, along with some sample poetry and lyrics. I would review the whole album track to track and make further comments, but that would take days because I'd be blabbing on and on about how good each one of the songs is, so I'll stop here. But if you don't have a soft spot in your heart for a mellower side of music, I suggest that you don't buy this because you'll think it's too boring."

Brilliant, moving, and wondrous debut

killerpooh | Earth | 12/16/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Years now since I first heard the opening track, but still I remember the thrill I felt at its soaring, apostolic tone and its stunningly relevant lyrics about keeping oneself rooted amid the shallow bustle of life. That Jewel was so young when she wrote and performed that masterpiece speaks even today of the power of her talent and creativity.



And that the rest of the cd almost is as good still amazes me. "Pieces of You" and "Near You Always" are wonderful songs that will sneak right into your heart. But there are others, like "Foolish Games", with its heartbreaking, terribly accurate depiction of grief, love, and loss, "I'm Sensitive", with its anthem to hope and the heart, and "You Were Meant For Me", which is as breathtaking, powerful, and raw a musical expression of loss and love as any I ever have heard, that simply climb from the marvelous and into the sublime.



Pieces of You may be the most original, deep, and powerful expression of American music since, perhaps, Blue, by Joni Mitchell.



I rarely praise anything this much, but this is simply a great cd in every sense of the word. If, somehow, you've reached this point, almost inconceivably to me, without knowing of its power and richness, I'm delighted for you, because the music on what should become your newest discovery is such that, once you've heard it, you never will forget."

A Special Place in my Heart...

T. Jones-Yelvington | Chicago | 11/27/2001

(3 out of 5 stars)

"The summer of 1997, I was between my freshman and sophomore years of high school. My musical collection consisted mainly of Broadway showtunes and I was, for the most part, a social pariah. That summer was the summer when, duringa visit to my father's house in Marine, Minnesota, I first heard Jewel. My stepsister was playing this album as we cleaned house, and as we cleaned, the song "Little Sister" grabbed my attention. A virtual stranger to the folk/pop genre, I was immediately moved by the song's personal/political lyrics and spare acoustic sound. Soon after, I purchased "Pieces of You." It was months before the album left my cd player.In many ways, Jewel was a stepping stone for me. In the years since, I have moved on to other, more skilled female singer-songwriters, from folkies like Tracy Chapman, the Indigo Girls, Catie Curtis, Shawn Colvin and Ani DiFranco to popsters like Paula Cole, Sarah McLachlan, Tori Amos and Bjork. The number of female singer-songwriter albums in my collection is nearing 160. In a sense, my initial idolizing of Jewel prompted a fullscale revolution in my music tastes.Now, as Jewel releases her third album, I find myself asking wondering whether she deserved the adoration I once bestowed upon her. I find myself returning to her first album, questioning what it was that once made this work so special to me.I find myself realizing that there is indeed something special about this album. Is Jewel something of a bubblehead? Absolutely. Is she one of the most gifted singer-songwriters of our time? Absolutely not. However, "Pieces of You" showed a potential for lyrical intelligence lacking in her later work. The songs are sincere, accessible and meaningful. There are no cryptic or pretensious lines about "concrete and honey," or ridiculously uningelligent metaphors such as "your heart like grape gum on the ground." In her early work, Jewel doesn't try to be anything she's not. Her simplest lyrics are ofen her least ridiculous -- "I'm sensitive and I'd like to stay that way," is not neccesarily a naive statement. It is the statement of someone who simply wishes for a world w/ less pain. And though this album is chock full of flat notes and fumbled chords, it is precisely these minor flubs which give it its character. As a result, it is endearing in a way Jewel's later work can never be.In the begginning, Jewel showed some promise of intelligence. Unfortunately, this was quickly squandared, giving way to the idiotic and meaningless sub-par pseudo-poetry of "Spirit." However, I will always be tempted to look back to "Pieces of You," to wonder what could've been, what might've been -- and what for me once was. If you have any interest in hearing the closest thing to sincerity in Jewel's career, pick this up. It's worth a shot.
--TIM J-Y"