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She's an earnest storyteller, and in the land of steel guitars (and co-producer John Rich), there's no shame in tracks titled 'Love Is a Garden' and 'Thump, Thump,' two sweet, sway-along tunes.
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Perfectly Clear is not only persuasive, but down-home, old-school country.
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Between the grounded sweetness of her singing and the quirky naturalism in her lyrics, songs like the throwback-style 'Anyone but You' develop a naturally appealing sophisticated country.
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Even if it doesn't sound more like a country album than any of her previous work, the best songs on Perfectly Clear do show an awareness of genre form that gives Jewel a more distinctive presence than many of her contemporaries on country radio.
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Jewel wrote or helped write every song here save one, and the producer John Rich (of Big & Rich) has done little to hammer down her well-worn eccentricities: wordiness; imperfect rhymes; a sharp, assured voice that collapses for effect.
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There is little hint of her past as a modern folk-rock singer, but she does hold on to a certain genuineness as a lyricist of songs of love and self-determination.