This Way

Released	November 12, 2001 November 13, 2001 February 18, 2002 February 25, 2002 February 26, 2002
Recorded	???
Length	58:42
Producer	Jewel, Dann Huff, John Kurzweg
Professional Reviews
All Music Guide		4/5 Stars
Rolling Stone		3.5/5 Stars
Pop Matters
The Onion AV Club
dotmusic		7/10 Stars
Amazon.com
E! Online		C+
Chronology
Joy: A Holiday Collection (1999)	This Way (2001)	0304 (2003)

This Way

This Way is the third album by singer/songwriter Jewel, released in 2001. Singles included the hits "Standing Still" and "Break Me" as well as the eponymous track "This Way" also found on the soundtrack for the Angelina Jolie film Life or Something Like It. Lastly, "Serve the Ego" was remixed by Hani Num and Mike Rizzo and became a number one hit on the US Club charts.

Tracklisting

Personnel

Jewel - vocals
Tim Akers - keyboard
Dave Angell - strings
Monisa Angell - strings
Janet Askey - strings
Beth Beeson - strings
Lynn Bloom - strings
Bekka Bramlett - background vocals
Steve Brewster - drums
Bruce Christensen - strings
Lisa Cochran - background vocals
J.T. Corenflos - electric guitar
Eric Darken - percussion
Dan Digmore - steel guitar
Connie Ellisor - strings
Paul Franklin - steel guitar
Carl Gorodetzky - strings
Kenny Greenberg - electric guitar
Gerald Greer - strings
Dann Huff - electric guitar
Ronn Huff - conductor
Gordon Kennedy - electric guitar
Anthony LaMarchina - strings
Lee Larrison - strings
B. James Lowry - acoustic guitar
Bob Mason - strings
Chris McHugh - drums
Jerry McPherson - electric guitar
Gene Miller - background vocals
Cate Myer - strings
Steve Nathan - keyboard
Kathryn Plummer - strings
Chris Rodrigues - background vocals
Pamela Sixfin - strings
Jimmie Lee Sloas - bass
Calvin Smith - strings
Roger Spencer - strings
Jackie Street - bass
Julie Tanner - strings
George Tidwell - trumpet
Alan Umstead - strings
Catherine Umstead - strings
Gary VanOsdale - strings
Mary Kathryn VanOsdale - strings
Glenn Wanner - strings
John Willis - acoustic guitar
Karen Winkelmann - strings
Joy Worland - strings
Craig Young - bass
Jonathan Yudkin - fiddle, mandolin, cello

Production

Producers: Jewel, Dann Huff, John Kurzweg
Executive producers: Lenedra Carroll, Ron Shapiro
Engineers: Jeff Balding, John Kurzweg
Assistant engineers: David Bryant, Jed Hackett
Mixing: Jeff Balding
Mastering: Robert Hadley, Doug Sax
A&R: Gloria Gabriel
Production coordination: Mike "Frog" Griffith
Contractor: Carl Gorodetzky
Programming: David Lyndon Huff, Tedd T.
Drum programming: Wayne Rodrigues
Arranger: Mark Goldenberg
String arrangements: Ronn Huff
Art direction: Chad Farmer
Photography: Ellen Von Unwerth

Charts

Album

Billboard (North America)

Year	Chart	Position
2001	The Billboard 200	9
2001	Top Internet Albums	5

International

Year	Chart	Position
2001	Philippine Pop Albums Chart	5
2001	Philippine Rock/Alternative Albums Chart	1

Singles

Billboard (North America)

Year	Single	Chart	Position
2001	Standing Still	Adult Contemporary	19
2001	Standing Still	Adult Top 40	3
2001	Standing Still	The Billboard Hot 100	25
2001	Standing Still	Top 40 Mainstream	22
2001	Standing Still	Top 40 Tracks	16
2002	Standing Still	Top 40 Adult Recurrents	1
2002	Break Me	Adult Top 40	28
2002	Serve the Ego	Hot Dance Music/Club Play	1
2002	Serve the Ego	Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales	5
2002	This Way	Adult Top 40	36

Reviews

Allmusic.com:
by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
4 of 5 Stars

Jewel came dangerously close to drowning in her own solemnity and good intentions with her second album, so it comes as a great relief that This Way, her third effort, finds her lightening up and sharpening her focus, creating an album that never feels as somber or polished as Spirit. In fact, it's her first genuine step forward, since it finds her enhancing the latent folk and country influences in her music, attempting to add grit to her songs and performances, while retaining the pop sense of Pieces of You's studiocraft that made Spirit a more sonically satisfying record than her debut. Consequently, this is probably the best record she has cut to date, even if she still is very quick to indulge in silly, naïve lyrics (it's not just her save-the-world sentiments -- who on god's green earth has pictures of Randy Newman strewn across the floor?). Nevertheless, Jewel sounds looser, more comfortable than she ever has, and the music matches her attitude. The same problems may still remain, but her strengths have been enhanced and, at its best, This Way offers some fine, sweet adult alternative folk-pop -- maybe it has some dull stretches, and maybe she still takes herself a bit too seriously, but it's a classy adult pop record all the same.

Attach:sep.gif Δ Rolling Stone:
by James Hunter
3.5 of 5 Stars

As she so repeatedly displays on her new album, This Way, Jewel loves the coffeehouse folk-music mode of sitting around singing 'bout the state of the world, the way Tori Amos loves Bartok and Janet Jackson loves dance. "They say that you're only half-alive/Till you give extra whitening a try," Jewel avers in a reference to advertising and toothpaste on "Jesus Loves You," a surging little rock tune that's all loopy commentary and sweet groove.

But out of that often cute and precious folky-poetic tradition, Jewel has delivered recordings - "Foolish Games" from her 1995 debut, Pieces of You, "Hands" and "Barcelona" from 1998's Spirit - that create their own luscious systems of personal observation, worry and hope. The apparent simplicity of folk presents wondrously complex and sexy possibilities for Jewel. She's one of the most richly idiomatic female pop singers of her generation, combining the blazing timbral containment of Karen Carpenter with the rootsy looseness of Bonnie Raitt. With This Way, Jewel continues on - elegant, earthy, engaged.

Unlike Spirit, where producer Patrick Leonard draped her essential folkiness in stylish L.A. keyboard auras, This Way finds Jewel in Nashville, working with producer-guitarist Dann Huff. The music has no particular Nashville characteristic except one: an unwavering concentration on melody and arrangements. Huff adds punch and color - Southern accents and ranging Western backdrops - to the music. Yet the arrangements of songs such as "Standing Still" and "This Way," both of which boast tunes a nation could sing, or the stark romantic ballad "Break Me," are all about Jewel - her voice, her thoughts, her stories.

She truly breaks out twice. On "I Won't Walk Away," Jewel and Huff travel to a Continental soundscape of moody strings and tinkling pianos. "Sometimes," she sings, "the world don't make sense," amid a poignant, magisterially sensible arrangement. But on "Love Me, Just Leave Me Alone," all her Seventies rock-chick leanings take flight as Huff and his band pull a Black Crowes. It's there, among "wolf bite" mothers and loser "turtleneck" guys, that she delivers quite a line indeed: "I tried," she sings, "to be unlovable." Jewel has little talent for that. (RS 882 - November 22, 2001)

Attach:sep.gif Δ PopMatters:
by Stephanie Dickison
7 of 10 Stars

You Don't Know Her At All

"Poetry is a passage into those parts of our being where we understand who we have been and where we discover and decide who and what we will be."

-- Jewel Kilcher, from a night without armour: poems

Perhaps you are as tired of her as the rest of the world. For awhile there, it was Jewel everywhere. On stage, being outfitted by Tommy Hilfiger, dating movie stars, and all the while speaking about the degradation of fame and its trappings. Then came the white horse. Why her publicity people never told her what a bad idea that way, we'll never know. But she survived the white horse and seems to have found a comfortable zone where she has comes to terms with her fame, but instead of heading to swank awards shows and events, she chills out with her rodeo riding' boyfriend, Ty Murray. How un-Hollywood can you get?

We all know about her past -- sleeping in the van (do you hear Chris Farley saying, "Down by the river" too?), growing up in Alaska (Brrr!) and her wonky relationship with her parental units. While it is fascinating, somewhere along the way, the press turned that into "quaint" and it turned around and bit her on what must be a pale white ass. It became rural girl turned pop princess and all of a sudden, her intelligence and quirky nature were scrutinized and held against her. Her previous CD was played to such a saturation point that her uniqueness was now annoying -- because it was being heard 10 times a day.

The thing with Jewel is that whatever singles are released, while good, aren't really what she's about. They are clearly her most accessible, but not her true work. So, if you think you know Jewel, Jewel from the radio, that is, you don't. She is far more textured and while sometimes veering off to a world inhabited with the ghosts of Joni Mitchell and Nina Simone, she has a sound all her own. And no, you wouldn't be able to tell that just from her radio hits. She has been misrepresented.

It is with this album, This Way that Jewel finally comes into her own. With the same guitar and folksy yodeling as heard as early on as Pieces of You's "Who Will Save Your Soul", "Foolish Games" and "You Were Meant for Me", this album is clearly Ms. Kilcher coming to the table on her own terms. Less folk, more pop (even more so than Spirit) and enough variety to please every member of the family, the messages still as are evident on This Way's 14 songs as on the first album. Whether these songs reach the previously visited overplay list remains to be seen. In the meantime, enjoy the newness that is Jewel.

The first single off the album, "Standing Still" has the requisite hooks and is clearly radio friendly. The annoyance factor is high when she gets into the country drawl on words like "headlights", "twilight" and "dead end", but the open, clear notes (that only Jewel seems in possession of) of "do you" and "like I" make up for any country lingerings.

In the liner notes, Jewel claims "Jesus Loves You" is one of her favourite tracks. You'll have to make up your mind on this one. The usual message is abundantly clear, but the production is too much all over. Remember the girl with guitar sound that was so clear on Pieces of You? You'll be aching for it on this one. But don't despair -- tracks 13 and 14, "Grey Matter" and "Sometimes It Be That Way" are recorded live.

"Everybody Needs Someone Somtime" is good for those achin' for something a little more boot-scoot boogie than the requisite pop hit. A love song to boyfriend Ty, "Break Me" is slow and, well, that's it. Unless you're Ty, of course. It would probably sound great just her and guitar, but that's old Jewel, dontcha know. A little mix of pop, rock and country, "Do You Want to Play?" is Jewel at her produced best (girl with guitar sound still rules). Not too much, not too little. Just enough. Jewel Does the Rodeo -- Nah. She just wrote about it with Ty in "Till We Run Out of Road". It's surprisingly good. Who knew rodeos could be such fodder for soon-to-be-hit songs?

Approached like a jazz song, "I Won't Walk Away" is thick with sexy singing and sad piano and a nice change from the usual Jewel sound. Tell me it doesn't sound like a Sting song. A nu country song that will convert the rockiest of you, "Love Me, Just Me Alone" is brash and sexy. Funny too. Just like the girl herself. This is gonna be the big breakout song that changes that perception of Jewel forever. "Serve the Ego" is slow, sexy and rock heavy all at once. One of the best songs you'll hear this year. A whole album of this would rock the pop world to its knees.

It is at this point that Jewel's new confidence and maturity from her last album must be mentioned. It is audible in every note, in every lyric, in every breath she takes. Whether she manages to sell a lot of this CD doesn't seem to matter here. It sounds like she just wants to say what she wants how she wants to say it.

Perhaps it's with the understanding of who she was and who she is and what she wants to be that this strong sense of character, clear vision, astounding voice, and new bag of goodies that she will find happiness and peace. A way to become comfortable with fame and recognition. And maybe sell a couple hundred thousand records along the way.

Attach:sep.gif Δ The Onion- A.V. Club:
by Stephen Thompson

Singer, songwriter, and poetess Jewel Kilcher has long been one of pop culture's most easily maligned figures, in part thanks to a best-selling book of goopy poetry and the memoir (the cover of which depicts her on horseback) she wrote to complement her three albums of pneumatic, overwrought sap. Musically, Kilcher has fallen off the radar a bit in recent years, and the time out of the spotlight has served her surprisingly well: This Way is somehow both ambitious and down-to-earth compared to its predecessors. The album announces the improvement immediately on its leadoff track and single, "Standing Still," which coats Kilcher's angsty sensitivity in an irresistible hook. Elsewhere, she courts myriad demographics—the teen-poetry crowd on the moribund ballad "Break Me," the Sheryl Crow crowd with the grit-attempting "Serve The Ego" and "Love Me, Just Leave Me Alone," the Faith Hill crowd with "Cleveland" and others—while stretching a bit creatively and tacking on a few live tracks for the faithful. Apart from a general reduction in groan-inducing lyrical missteps, the album's most noteworthy trend is the way its mild adult-contemporary exercises could, under a different name, fit in with the pretty faces that dominate contemporary country radio. Credit Kilcher with recognizing the need to redirect her commercial potential, and don't be surprised if This Way serves as her ticket to career longevity. The hordes who bought Pieces Of You and Spirit were bound to move on, and the album provides a clear indication that Kilcher has, too.

Attach:sep.gif Δ DotMusic:
by Gary Crossing
6 of 10 stars

The facts should speak for themselves right? Jewel Kilcher has sold over 23 million albums worldwide. That's not counting this, the Alaskan's fourth album, which has already shifted over a million copies in the US, debuting at Number Nine on the Billboard chart last November.

So, now we are expected to fall head-over-heels for the first offering in three years from the singer/songwriter, poet and actress, oft hailed as the new Joni Mitchell. Sadly, however, this shiny collection of pop, folk, blues, country and rock is mostly about as emotionally engaging as watching Mr Spock watch paint dry... in the dark.

That's not to say that 'This Way' is unbearably dire. Jewel's tales of modern day small town America with "mothers on the stoop" and "boys in souped up coupes", of love, lust and other all-consuming human questions, are all cleverly worded. Indeed, when she lets herself go, her vocals can be entertaining in a Sheryl Crow-meets-Chrissie Hynde kind of way.

It's just that the recording is buffed and polished to within an inch of its life (Hyacinth Bucket's Pledge and duster skills couldn't have done better), while the largely less than memorable tunes breeze by without the least sense of event.

There are faint glimmers of hope. The gently reflective, quietly bitter 'Jesus Loves You', the Stonesy riffed trailer park loneliness of 'Everybody Needs Someone Sometime', the Eastern flavoured 'Serve The Ego' -"Who says a woman cannot serve?"- and dark, country-tinged attack on the US 'The New Wild West' are all fine tunes.

But it's the ballsy blues of 'Love Me, Just Leave Me Alone' -rough edged and rootsy with great gutsy vocals- and the two bonus live tracks - 'Grey Matter' and 'Sometimes It Be That Way' - which reveal the more vital, exciting, compelling performer beneath all the gloss and overdone production.

Attach:sep.gif Δ Amazon.com:
by Rickey Wright

It's easy to see that Jewel wants to lighten up. With two previous multimillion-selling albums (and a couple of much-scorned but popular books) filled with earnest, clueless revelations behind her, the singer-songwriter comes a little closer to ground with This Way. "Give it hell 'til the end," a former compatriot urges her on "Till We Run Out of Road," her version of Jackson Browne's "The Load Out." Could that be a hard-bitten road warrior deep inside the woman who makes a point of pronouncing the O's in the opening line ("Mirror, mirror") of this CD's "Serve the Ego"? Maybe. But despite her icky streak's spread to cutesy jokes ("Jesus Loves You"), Jewel hasn't quite abandoned her old judgmental ways (in "I Won't Walk Away," she spies a couple "resisting being one") and ambitions to, you know, really say something, as in the "Desolation Row"-lite "The New Wild West." Still, with some nice, if bland, arrangements set around her, This Way is the Jewel album most likely to appeal to Jewel non-fans.

Attach:sep.gif Δ E! Online:
C+

Sounds as if This Way isn't the way to go for Jewel. Her new disc is short on the kind of sweet 'n' simple coffeehouse ditties that made the Alaskan-born folksinger a fan favorite. Instead, she plays around with rock-ready guitars and studio special effects that only complicate her poetic pop product. Jewel's Janis Joplin impersonation falls short on "Love Me, Just Leave Me Alone," and her dash of country twang on "Everybody Needs Someone Sometime" is better left in the barn. She still has a striking voice, and a simpler Jewel does shine on "I Won't Walk Away" and "Break Me." But it's not enough to save this muddled effort.

2001	LP	Atlantic	83519
2001	CD	Atlantic	83519
2001	CD	Atlantic	83519