It's easy to see on This Way 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 album'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. --Rickey Wright