It was probably a shock for the fans, Jewels single Intuition and the accompanying video clip. Gone was the familiar folky singer / songerwriter pop and gone was the dreamy girl who preferred to write poems and ride a horse. Instead, hip beats now sounded and Jewel presented herself with a new sexy image in (a parody of?) An R&B-like video. Jewel has switched to dance-pop à la Madonna or
… Christina Aguilara with her latest CD 0304, and that takes some getting used to. The sound of 0304, produced by Lester A. Mendez (Shakira), sounds trendy and modern, but as a result, Jewel has lost some of its individuality. The fourteen songs, some of which written with Guy Chambers (Robbie Williams) and Rick Nowles (Madonna) threaten to perish at first hearing by superficiality, but are nevertheless saved by the refined production and Jewels innocent-girl voice. 0304 leaves the listener with ambivalent feelings, because it is not a bad pop record and it remains Jewel, but a completely different one. The European version of 0304 has a (Todd Terry) remix and the Intuition video clip as bonus track. (IV)more
