The girl behind the counter at the Virgin Store said, "It's very different. I think she's sold out."

I looked at the baby blue cover of Jewel's (with her in bright pastel colours) new album, 0304, in my hand, "You think? It's very very different from her previous albums, that's for sure. I'm all in a whirl. I don't know what to think about this."

"Did you like her new single? Intuition?" asked a bloke behind the same counter.

"Yes, I did. A lot."

I contemplated the cd in my hand. "You know what? Let me sit on this a few days. Let it all mull around in my head," I handed the cd back to them.

"Sure!"

I've let it mull in my head for a week now - going back and forth to the music stores to have a listen and more listens to the cd. I am dead serious about my music. It has got to be music I can live with day in, day out before I eventually buy a copy.

There is very little of the folk Jewel sound of previous years. The songs are still lyrically beautiful and still has that Jewel feel in the words, but where previously the lyrics drove the melody and shaped the song, this time round, I think the melody or beat must have come first. The first impression is the beat, not the words. There's a pop/electronic/dance feel to the album, which was what threw me for sixes when I first heard it in the store. Jewel, I think, calls it "an urban, hip-hop record"? Whatever it is, it is different. There is a touch of Sophie Ellis Baxter running through it, but with Jewel's own brilliant poetry colouring it.

I haven't really had a good listen to the entire album - mainly because I can't get beyond the second track, Run 2 U. The folk element of the first three albums is there, but she's added another dimension to it with this insistent beat that makes me want to jump up on the floor and groove! That's not a normal Jewel reaction - that's more a Justin Timberlake reaction! Ordinarily, Jewel makes me want to cry and then rush out to save the world!

If Jewel's intention was to shake her fans up with this album, she has certainly achieved that. I am "all shook up". But seeing, and Joy can attest to this, as I like Justin and his music, I will probably, definitely, go out and grab a copy of 0304. However, it will eventually sit with Kylie, not with Norah Jones.