Jill Sobule - Underdog Victorious
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CD Details
Artist: Jill SobuleEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2004-09-07
Music Label: Artemis Records
Soundtracks:
- Freshman
- Jetpack
- Cinnamon Park
- Tender Love
- Underdog Victorious
- Under the Disco Ball
- Last Line
- Tel Aviv
- Joey
- Nothing Natural
- Angel/Asshole
- Strawberry Gloss
- Thank Misery
- Bonus Track: I saw A Cop
Music reviews of Underdog Victorious
Music Review: Jill Just Gets Better and Better
Rating: 5 Stars
Jill Sobule, blessed and cursed by the success of 1995's "I Kissed a Girl," is one of the most talented singer/songwriters and troubodours around today. Live, with just mic and her Vagabond travel guitar, she holds a room in the palm of her hand with her command of dynamics and winning personality.
It seems that each of her records have gotten better and better. Underdog Vicrorious features the wit and poignancy that fans have come to expect, but this time there is something new in the mix-- some outrageously happy songs. "Cinnamon Park," the single written around a loop of Chicago's "Saturday in he Park," is a winning song that it is simply impossible to dislike. "Jet Pack," her love song to New York City, is wistful and gorgeous; it is about living in Brooklyn and seeing the big city (Manhattan) across the river, so close yet, in practice, so far. "Last Line," about a disfunctional, co-dependent coke addict 70s couple, is one of her most accomplished pieces of song craft ever-- using the lines of cocaine as a metaphor for spoken lines, and how the last line is never as good as the first line. Beautiful songwriting. As is "Tel Aviv," written from the pespective of an Israeli hooker; as we learned with Woody Guthrie, the best political songs are about one person or family. This is an empathetic character study that speaks volumes.
"Freshman" is a fun opener and serves to set the mood for the album, funny and wistful at the same time. "Joey" is another in Jill's continuing series of songs about messed up women; here that would be Joey Heatherton. It is a gloriously fun song, and you'll want to pogo along at home.
There are several themes that weave throughout the album, lending it a cohesiveness and consistency that makes the whole greater than the sum of its (fine) parts. I think the primary theme is a nostalgia for the 60s and 70s, which Jill expresses both in the sound of the music ("Cinnamon Park"; the title track, which is essentially Jill's own "All the Young Dudes") and in the lyrics (the touching "Strawberry Gloss," a song about being in junior high in the 70s and having your best friend drop you.) As usual, her guitar playing is outstanding-- often with singer/songwriters, great guitar work is overlooked in the focus placed on the song, but in Jill's case it should not be-- and the production is deft, adding embelishments but staying out of the way of Jill's natural assets (voice, guitar, song, wit, warmth.)
Ordinarily it might be good advice to start with an older release when exploring a new artist, but in Jill's case, I wholeheartedly recommend this as your first stop; then work your way back. She is one of the many great, unsung talents on the American music scene today, because she isn't really part of any one scene (and because there isn't a record comapny putting half a million bucks behind her singles). Oh-- and by all means, do yourself a favor and see her live if you can. You will not be disappointed, and you might just fall in love.
Also recommended: The Folk Years, which I think is just available directly from Jill via website and at gigs. If only for the cover of "Survivor," and the hilarious "War Correspondent in Love."
Description of Underdog Victorious
Ori Release '04 from the US Singer/Songwriter, her first record in four years contains the single "Cinnamon Park".Underdog Victorious is the kind of album that makes listeners feel smart. Catchy and upbeat, it connects instantly to spark a Friday-at-five vibe, but it also sinks in deep on several tracks. "Tel Aviv" takes on sex slavery ("I think of my mother / I send her what I can / She thinks I'm a waitress / She's proud I'm a waitress") and the title track hopeless dorkiness, with its fat-kid protagonist, but even the heavy-subject numbers have a way of veering hard toward the lighhearted. Sobule borrows generously from Chicago for "Cinnamon Park," a throwback stoner anthem that should have been the hit of the summer, and her sleepyheaded schoolgirl voice wins us over in its lovable-kook way as it struggles to keep pace with the kicky "Joey," about a has-been teen queen. Where other "quirky" musicians stagnate or flame out, Sobule only gets stronger. Underdog Victorious is her triumph-tinged proof that in the gets-better-with-every-album race, she's the rare real deal. --Tammy La Gorce
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