It´s easy to see 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 CD´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".