I’m taking myself back on a memory trip, way back into highschool.
Jewel Kilcher was my favorite artist then. Funny, but more than being a singer, I loved her for being a poet. She was criticized to write crappy poems, (she published 2 books; one a book of poetry and another a sort of autobiography but not quite) but I didn’t find her work crappy at all. I thought she was marvelous, nothing short of wonderful especially with her literary showcase. Her poems spoke to me, my young naive mind still grasping for a sense of the world. And I thought the way she saw the world was beautiful and unique.
I still read her book to this day, and discover newer things, sensibilities, thoughts and insights about life. Sure, I’ve read better pieces of poetry and encountered more talented writers, but there is nothing like returning to Jewel Kilcher’s poems, she who made me appreciate the art of the unspoken yet heard song—to her, poems were songs sung in silence.
Jewel Kilcher for me is still one of the few artists who’s attempted and continues to attempt merging poetry with daily life and music. It’s kind of hard to explain, but as an artist, she goes for the median base. A lot of songwriters are either too literal that you don’t need further imagination because everything has been spat out and said; or that they’re very prolific and profound that you’re stuck in the colloidial thoughts of a parallel universe, another world, another story but similar to yours. And then there’s the median artist, who is rare because they use the daily things to convey deeper metaphors; they stick to this world to build a world within, coming out very personal yet collective. They don’t over indulge the listener with whining and mishaps, yet have the whole experience come out as something so defining or redefining at that. That is Jewel—at least the Jewel I remember her as back when I was in high school. It’s either you like her or not because of this, because she’s so delicately hybrid.
Today for (((SOUNDTRIP))), I present to you Absence of Fear. One of the Jewel songs that I’ve really grown to love.
Break down the song at your own pace. I suggest to indulge in the aura of the song first before anything, and let the music and words grow on you. You will never look back, after having done so.
Cheers and thank God for music!
-M.
