Composition
The first song "Stand" sees Jewel taking a few shots at the American dream. Lyrically it places strength in the listener and Jewel who will presumably make a stand together against the strangeness of the modern world. It is reminiscent of Suzanne Vega's observational "Tom's Diner". The second track, the thumping "Run 2 U", captures the essence of "folktronica". Mixing a guitar and a lazy house beat, Kilcher lets slip that she needs her lover for more than love: "I need you for dark reasons, dear/for greed and lust and seed and fear." The third track and lead single "Intuition" follows in all its electro swank glory. She urges us to follow our hearts but then taunts, "Sell your sin/Just cash in." It features accordions and dance beats. The fourth track is the "jazzy, trip-poppy" "Leave the Lights On". The lyrics reflect a sunny disposition that is slightly dark underneath: "just look at me sacredly, religiously, hungrily". Her voice ranges from emotive in "2 Find U", before heading back to a pop chorus, while "Fragile Heart" showcases breathy, over-affected vocals.
The seventh track "Doin' Fine" is reminiscent of Sixpence None the Richer and is a "life-is-a-highway anthem", where she sings: "Life's a breeze for people like you and me". The eighth track "2 Become 1" was co-written by Guy Chambers who is best known for his songwriting partnership with Robbie Williams. The song later appeared on her sixth album "Perfectly Clear" (2008) in a new country version that was re-titled, "Two Become One". The ninth track "Haunted" starts with Jewel's whispers. It slowly builds into the first verse towards a stirring climax in which her voice nearly breaks underneath the weight of her screams. "Sweet Temptation" and "Yes U Can" revive the New Wave sugar-buzz of The Bangles or Missing Persons. She also embraces some rap attempts on "U & Me" = Love. The folky patriotic protest song "America" harken back to the serious singer/songwriter vein of her past albums. She claims her record label made her change out of "fear of litigation" with lyrics such as "We shed blood in the name of liberty."
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Famous quotes containing the word composition:
“Since body and soul are radically different from one another and belong to different worlds, the destruction of the body cannot mean the destruction of the soul, any more than a musical composition can be destroyed when the instrument is destroyed.”
—Oscar Cullman. Immortality of the Soul or Resurrection of the Dead? The Witness of the New Testament, ch. 1, Epworth Press (1958)
“If I don’t write to empty my mind, I go mad. As to that regular, uninterrupted love of writing ... I do not understand it. I feel it as a torture, which I must get rid of, but never as a pleasure. On the contrary, I think composition a great pain.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“Pushkin’s composition is first of all and above all a phenomenon of style, and it is from this flowered rim that I have surveyed its seep of Arcadian country, the serpentine gleam of its imported brooks, the miniature blizzards imprisoned in round crystal, and the many-hued levels of literary parody blending in the melting distance.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)