It isn't hard to view Jewel's country music makeover on Perfectly Clear with a mildly cynical eye, especially as it follows her dance-pop shakeup on 2003's 0304 by a mere five years. Such whiplash changes in direction are bound to raise suspicion, but Jewel wears her country threads better than her diva hand-me-downs, possibly because it suits her mythical back-story of living out of the back of the truck but it's also a smaller leap from folk to country...at least in theory, that is, as Perfectly Clear isn't quite a full-fledged country album. Like Bon Jovi before her and Jessica Simpson after, Jewel's country move is more about marketing than music, an adjustment that puts her in line with adults raised on Pieces of You but more likely to listen to Brad Paisley than Feist. There are fiddles and steel guitars threaded throughout the album but their presence is nearly subliminal at most points; they're felt, not heard, just enough to give it a country feel. The setting may be country -- courtesy of producer John Rich, whose production recalls his hazy, soft solo album rather than the gonzo strut of Big & Rich -- but Jewel is not a country singer, no matter how often she affects a twang. She's a folksinger, soaring with her long, lyrical phrases instead of aiming for the gut, something that grates when she does attempt something uptempo but she wisely avoids this pitfall through much of the album, choosing to dole out ballads and midtempo pop. This brings Perfectly Clear much closer to Pieces of You than any album she's made since, as it's filled with poppy, simple songs about relationships, never bogging down in portentous pretension, literary preoccupations, or glossy pop as she has in every record since. This doesn't necessarily make Perfectly Clear a "better" record -- some of those albums were pretty good even if they didn't adhere to the Jewel myth -- but it does mean it feels more like the Jewel that everybody came to love back in 1995, which is what it was intended to do. So it has the form and feel, but the devil is in the details, the songs that never quite hook and sometimes serve up some patently absurd moments, usually in the form of her overheated lyrics (which also betray how un-country she really is). Such details might be a deal-breaker for some, but Jewel feels and sounds comfortable here, something that will surely help her shift units with this record and will likely give her a long career, if she so chooses.

Jewel's life has always sounded like a country song: Raised by her cowboy dad and discovered while she was homeless, she went on to sell 12 million copies of her debut, only to become the butt of countless zingers. So Perfectly Clear, her first proper country record, should have been her true calling to an art that's one part twang to two parts self-mythology. But the album's biggest setback, other than the fact that its title sounds like a Neutrogena product, is that Jewel doesn't call upon the gritty storytelling of a real Nashville star. Co-producer John Rich of Big and Rich provides plenty of slide guitar, banjo plucks and fiddle, but no memorable melodies. The title track strikes a raw nerve with its slow, stripped-down arrangement. But the album is overcrowded by placid soft-rock tunes like "Two Become One" and "Anyone But You" with schmaltzy choruses and flavorless piano-laden verses. Jewel contributes bland pickup-truck philosophy about relationships in cutesy little-girl vocals that rarely show off her voice's texture (though, yes, there's some yodeling). On "I Do," she says, "Love is a game" — one track later, "Love Is a Garden." Even the girl-power anthem "Stronger Woman" doesn't promise much: "I'm going to love myself more than anyone else." Jewel, prepare to be zinged again.

Jewel has been a pop chart fixture since 1995, but ever organically rooted to make her move to country a convincing transition, and the format has already embraced top 15 single "Stronger Woman." Her seventh album and first full-length country project, "Perfectly Clear," is not only persuasive, but down-home, old-school country. It's not just the addition of steel guitar that sells Jewel's passage, but the whole of her delivery and lyrical themes. Potential hits abound: Best are the searching, chug-along "I Do"; remorseful ballad "Everything Reminds Me of You"; the uptempo, playful "Rosey and Mick," about a long-term imperfect relationship; and the mannered "Anyone but You," which sounds like a Tammy Wynette classic. Jewel continues to surprise and inspire, and "Clear" is an ideal transition for the 34-year-old Texas dweller.

Pop-folkie Jewel's finally gone country on her seventh album, Perfectly Clear, and it suits her: She's an earnest storyteller, and in the land of steel guitars (and co-producer John Rich), there's no shame in tracks titled Love Is a Garden and Thump, Thump, two sweet, sway-along tunes. And though self-help single Stronger Woman is unremarkable radio fare, Jewel does conjure a few special ballads. Her thick vibrato makes desperation palpable on the Patsy-would-be-proud weeper Anyone but You, and she actually yodels with soul on the soaring Loved by You (Cowboy Waltz).