Singer-songwriter Jewel Kilcher's voice is as sweet as ever, but her sixth album, Goodbye Alice in Wonderland, offers no surprises.
It's Jewel's most autobiographical work, with the 13 tracks tracing her path from the solitude of Alaska to the joys and pitfalls of fame.
Some songs are new, while others are drawn from her catalogue of nearly 500 original works written over the years.
The first single, the mid-tempo Again and Again, is an ode to the challenges and compromises of romantic love.
Jewel makes the most of her poetic skills and malleable voice on the optimistic Good Day, the satiric Satellite (which she wrote on her first visit to Hollywood when she was 18), the anthemic Only One Too and Words Get in the Way, and the plaintive road-trip tune, Drive to You.
The Grammy Award winner recollects visiting seedy Alaskan bars and her free-flowing, lyrical years as a teenager in Last Dance Rodeo, which segues into Fragile Heart.