Jewel

"Who Will Save Your Soul" was Jewel's breakout hit in 1995, but the real winner here is the bouncy, bodacious "You Were Meant for Me." The Alaskan singer-songwriting ultra hippie set herself apart from the Natalie Merchant-dominated pack with confident songwriting, a distinctive singing style and spare but warm arrangements on this Grammy-winning debut album.

Worth ignoring while she was merely precious, she demands our brief attention now that she's becoming overvalued as well. With the possible exception of Saint Joan, who at least had some stature, this is the bad folkie joke to end all bad folkie jokes. With her self-righteousness, her self-dramatization, her abiding love for her own voice, her breathy little-girl innocence and breathless baby-doll sexuality, her useless ideas about prejudice and injustice and let us not forget abuse, she may well prove as insufferable as any hollow-bodied guitarist ever to get away with craving the world's adoration. End of story--I hope. (Grade - C-)