Jewel - Again and Again (2006)

*1/2 (of four)



Jewel is like the Terminator. Every time I think I'm rid of her, she grows a metallic claw, crawls up the trunk of my car and attacks me one more time. I thought the death of the Lilith Fair craze would lead her back to obscurity. No such luck. Then I thought her wrong-headed blend of folk and adult-contemporary techno beats would prove her undoing. Wrong twice. Jewel keeps coming back again and again, as this song's title asserts. Interestingly enough, the hook even rips off Fiona Apple's "again and again and again and again" line from "Fast As You Can."

Now, Fiona I can handle reappearing every few years. Jewel just gets on my nerves, and this Matthew Rolston video - with its country houses and cornfields and soft-focus shots of Jewel lying in the grass in some kind of wedding-dress sleepwear - is a dead ringer for a Summer's Eve commercial. Appropriate, considering new Jewel singles always give me that not-so-fresh feeling. Get me some vinegar and water, stat!