As she so repeatedly displays on her new album, This Way, Jewel loves the coffeehouse folk-music mode of sitting around singing 'bout the state of the world."They say that you're only half-alive/Till you give extra whitening a try," Jewel avers in a reference to advertising and toothpaste on "Jesus Loves You," a surging little rock tune that's all loopy commentary and sweet groove. But out of that often cute and precious folky-poetic tradition, Jewel has delivered recordings - "Foolish Games" from her 1995 debut, Pieces of You, "Hands" and "Barcelona" from 1998's Spirit - that create their own luscious systems of personal observation, worry and hope. The apparent simplicity of folk presents wondrously complex and sexy possibilities for Jewel. She's one of the most richly idiomatic female pop singers of her generation, combining the blazing timbral containment of Karen Carpenter with the rootsy looseness of Bonnie Raitt. With This Way, Jewel continues on - elegant, earthy, engaged.

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