I have loved Jewel for a long time (‘Goodbye Alice In Wonderland’ is one of my favourite albums ever) so I was very excited about the news of a greatest hits album. Granted, I would like some new material, but she states in this article on Billboard that she has a couple of new original albums written already and is not sure which direction she would like to go in. Specifically she says she has written a country album, so good news for the country world!
Aside from that, fans can expect a good selection of songs from her career to feature on her greatest hits (although I do feel they’ve missed some gems), which will include, ‘You Were Meant For Me’, ‘Hands’, ‘Down So Long’, ‘Jupiter’, ‘Standing Still’, ‘Break Me’, ‘Intuition’, ‘Good Day’, ‘Stronger Woman’, ‘Satisfied’, ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’, ‘Who Will Save Your Soul’ and ‘Foolish Games’. In addition, two special surprises have been arranged that I for one am very excited about.
Along with the original version of the song, a duet with Kelly Clarkson on ‘Foolish Games’ will be featured on the album, bringing a new element to the masterpiece of a song, and Jewel will team up with the Pistol Annies (which consists of Miranda Lambert, Ashley Monroe and Angaleena Presley) on a new version of Jewel’s massive 1996 hit, ‘You Were Meant For Me’. Now that I did not see coming. Clearly Jewel’s trying to make more inroads with country music with these duets, as her 2008 country album ‘Perfectly Clear’ did not do as well as deserved, and if she has written a country album she obviously wants to lay the foundations for a successful release. That’s not to say that she’ll definitely release it, but I have a feeling it won’t just go unpublished.
Finally, a new song will be featured, I guess to promote it. Jewel is currently trying to make the decision between two songs to make the final cut, entitled ‘Two Hearts Breaking’ (“really dark and poetic”) and ‘Dance Sing Laugh Love’ (“pop and fun”). However, she says, "I have no idea which one to put on; knowing me I'll put them both on and work out the publishing stuff on my end rather than choose between them." Sounds like a good plan to me!
Both were produced by Jay Joyce and will no doubt make a great addition to what is a huge career of amazing songwriting, which this album’s tracklist is not even close to exemplifying. However, I don’t think there’s any way Jewel’s ‘greatest hits’ could be summarised succinctly and they’ve done a pretty good job considering.
The album drops February 5th, 2013, and Jewel will be going on tour from March 7th to support it. The tour dates are listed below (venues to be announced):
March 7: Englewood, NJ
March 8: New Brunswick, NJ
March 9: Atlantic City, NJ
March 10: Portland, ME
March 12: Boston, MA
March 13: Huntington, NY
March 14: Lancaster, PA
March 15: Bethlehem, PA
March 16: Niagara Falls, NY
March 19: Washington, DC
March 20: Greensburg, PA
March 22: Verona, NY
March 23: Lakewood, OH
March 24: Detroit, MI
I’d just like to clarify I am in debt to the previously referenced Billboard article as it essentially informed this entire article (although I wrote all facts in my own words, obviously). Mainly because I’m too lazy to go looking elsewhere and it pretty much summed everything up.
I really look forward to hearing both the new song(s) and the new duets and to investing in this little piece of musical history.
Posted by Vickye (Guest Writer).
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