Goodbye Alice in Wonderland

Say what you will about Jewel, that much-mocked poetess with the burlesque body, but it turns out that she’s at least halfway in on the joke: ”So why not follow me, the blond bombshell deity?/I’ll sell you neat ideas without big words/And a little bit of cleavage to help wash it all down,” she croons tartly on Goodbye Alice in Wonderland track ”Stephenville, TX.” Sincerity is still her main trade, as are showbiz-as-Hades tropes and romantic confessionals. But somewhere beneath the Lilith earnestness glints something sharper.