JILL SOBULE - Pink Pearl

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Music reviews of Pink Pearl

Music Review: Jill Sobule's Pink Pearl - World Class Songsmithing
Rating: 4 Stars

Sobule's songs sneak up on you: light, happy-go-lucky tunes belie the deep sarcasm that runs throughout her work. This installment's menu includes mental illness, anorexia, child abuse, and disillusionment with one's lovers and heroes. Yet these songs are so filled with uncommon wit and the genuine joy of performance that they can raise a smile and a snicker. It is this balancing act between elation and desperation that makes Sobule's songs so compelling.

In Mary Kay, Sobule spins a yarn about a certain notorious teacher and her adolescent lover. Opening with a hilarious montage of sampled melodramatic strings, the sordid tale unfolds and the tune turns acoustic with Jill's finger-picked guitar and vocals, then dramatically builds to a full arrangement featuring co-producer Brad Jones on bass and harmonium. It all ends as surprisingly as it begins, with a reprise of Mickey Grimm's noisy drums, an ominous undamped floor tom ringing out to the end.

Claire, one of the album's strongest entries, has good-natured fun with an aunt's increasing senility: "She told me back in '44 she slept with Eleanor / Sometimes she gets confused / For all we know it's true, " then takes a surprising sad turn, shifting voices: "Have you been here before? / Are you someone I should know? / Then perhaps you better go." Similarly bipolar, Heroes is a rousing, very live (complete with hand claps and yells) sounding anthem to the clay feet of our most revered role models.

Jill Sobule's recording method is rather democratic: after laying down basic tracks, she instigates a Nashville studio free-for-all until just the right sound happens, inviting ideas from all corners. Though the instrumentation is wonderfully varied, ranging from Moog to timpani to pump organ, this recording often lays cardboard flat, suffering from an overall compression through which occasional percussion is allowed to punch. Especially dynamically challenged are Jill's lead vocals, in contrast to her springy guitar.

Sobule's tentative singing is far from perfect, but her lack of control reads as honesty and vulnerability, not as poor technique. Emphasizing this vocal candor is the fact that she is recorded bone dry, without a hint of reverb. To her credit, this takes real guts. To our benefit, the effect is arresting and immediate. Here one is reminded of Sam Phillips' stark dry vocals on Martinis and Bikinis, minus the transcendent harmonies.

Oddly, the most sonically pleasing track is the one most crudely recorded. The home 4-track demo Rock Me To Sleep is a sweet and gentle lullaby, sung without a trace of Sobule's usual cynicism. Beautifully simple, and constructed of only Jill's voice and guitar, one can hear through the analog hiss a performance that is real and captivating. One wishes Sobule would learn from this lesson in simplicity. It's the songs that matter.

Description of Pink Pearl

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