(MENAFN- Arab Times) Most people know Jewel's rags-to-riches story - growing up on an Alaskan homestead, getting discovered as a homeless teen in a California coffee shop, going platinum on her debut album, "Pieces of You," a folksy anthem in the grunge era.
But as she reveals in her new memoir, "Never Broken," and a companion album, "Picking Up the Pieces," her story didn't have a fairytale ending.
"I've always been very transparent as an artist," said the 41-year-old singer. "I've been known throughout my career to share a lot. But I think people will be quite surprised by what is in the book. Honestly, I think the biggest setbacks I faced were after I became famous."
Difficult and sometimes painful family relationships led her to become mostly independent as a teenager, crafting her skills in bars and coffee shops. She writes that her father was physically and verbally abusive to her and her brothers, which she attributes to his drinking and his own personal trauma. They have since reconciled.
Consider
"I think that anybody that reads the book won't consider this a salacious book, but it is incredibly forthright," Jewel said. "My dad gave me permission. " My dad grew up in an abusive household. My dad became abusive. " What are cycles of abuse and what kinds of conversations can we have in America about emotional patterns?"
She also details how her mother took control of her finances and subsequently led her into debt despite selling millions of albums, according to the book. The two stopped talking in 2003. The final chapters of the book describe her romance with champion rodeo cowboy Ty Murray, who she married in 2008 and had a son with, and their divorce last year.
"My life has been setback after setback after setback," Jewel said. "And it's been about learning how can I stand up and not just survive, but how do I thrive? How do I become more loving, more yielding, more whole, instead of letting this damage me and make me more brittle and more unable to experience love and trust."
Dives
On the album, she dives deep into those relationships on songs like "My Father's Daughter," a duet with Dolly Parton, and "Family Tree," about learning to live with her family's legacy.
"My mom isn't a villain," Jewel said. "My dad isn't a villain. People get some things right and people get some things wrong. And the song for me, 'Family Tree,' is about looking at that. I think the line is, 'To take the fruit and choose the seeds you want to scatter into the wind.'"
While it's not a happily ever after kind of book, Jewel closes the memoir with inspirational guidelines that helped her recover and rebuild her life.
Her new album is entitled "Honeymoon," but for Lana Del Rey such romantic sojourns are bleak in the way of classic film noir.
In her highly anticipated fourth album released Friday, Del Rey returns to the somber, cinematic sound that has made her among the most unique and complicated recent pop sensations.
At age 30, the artist born as Elizabeth Woolridge Grant combines the glamour of a black-and-white-era movie star with the sexiness of a top model, yet with a constantly perceptible vulnerability.
Her lyrical voice and troubled persona evoke the ghosts of singing greats such as Nina Simone and Billie Holiday, whom she both references on the new album including with a cover of "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood," which was popularized by Simone.
The album is haunted by allusions to past violence at the hands of men, a frequent theme for Del Rey that has contributed to her image as an anti-feminist.
"We both know the history of violence that surrounds you / But I'm not scared; there's nothing to lose now that I've found you," she sings on the title track, which is driven by the dark strings of a tragic film.
On "The Blackest Day," Del Rey sings of failed love as a "half-life in lost dreams."
"Ever since my baby went away / It's been the blackest day / All I hear is Billie Holiday / It's all that I play," she sings.
Del Rey offers a window into her worldview through a spoken-word interlude. Halfway through the album, she recites the opening of T.S. Eliot's "Burnt Norton."
The poem, which begins Eliot's "Four Quartets," meditates on the idea of fate, with an underlying suggestion that our present experiences are out of our control.
Describing why she called her album "Honeymoon," Del Rey said it was "the word that sums up the ultimate dream."
"I mean, life is a honeymoon, you know? Life, love, paradise, freedom" that's forever. With someone, or just with yourself," Del Rey, who has cut back on interviews after controversies, told actor James Franco for the V fashion magazine.
The New York-born transplant to Los Angeles also said, in a possible reference to the song, that she did not fear being "misunderstood" when she performs in France or Italy.
Del Rey emerged in 2011 on the New York scene and quickly became a sensation on the force of videos that showed a raw authenticity.
Tens of millions have watched her videos for "Blue Jeans," a song about still loving a delinquent who leaves her, and "Video Games," in which she relishes the attention of a boyfriend who is focused on his console.
While the atmospherics of "Honeymoon" may be similar on the surface, the new album delves darker as Del Rey is no longer at peace.
On "High by the Beach," Del Rey sings of seeking to do nothing other than drugging herself on the sand as she calls it quits on a fraught relationship.
"High by the Beach" brings in a heavy beat reminiscent of trap music, Del Rey's latest subtle incorporation of other genres to her baroque pop.
Her last album, "Ultraviolence," brought in a blues-rock layer after she worked with Black Keys frontman Dan Auerbach.
While the harder edges are gone, Del Rey brings in a flute on the dreamy "Music to Watch Boys To," and, on "Salvatore," evokes Italy.
The album's ideas of fatalism and romance swirl on "Salvatore" as she dares an Italian suitor to catch her and concludes, "Ciao amore / Salvatore can wait / Now it's time to eat soft ice cream."
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