Customer Reviews

Underdog Victorious

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Once again, Jill Sobule has released a catchy--yet mature--album with Underdog Victorious.

There are some great upbeat tunes here, which highlight this collection, if ya ask me. They include the title song, an anthemic tribute to losers who become winners; Cinnamon Park, a bouncy winner reminiscent of Chicago's Saturday in the Park, and Joey, a paean to Joey Heatherton.

Jill's cleverness is on display with songs like Jetpack, Freshman and Under the Disco Ball. Tender Love, Last Line, Tel Aviv and Thank Misery are mature, sad reflections.

Throughout, the production by Brad Jones and Robin Eaton mingle nostalgic touches with modern beats and melodies.

If you've liked Jill's previous efforts, you'll find this one of her best. And if you haven't heard Ms. Sobule before, you'll find an artist that combines great music, tremendous humor and heartbreaking insights--sometimes in the same song.

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."

Jill Sobule is an obscure artist. Though she's labored for over a decade now, she's only gotten a tiny taste of commercial success. This is a crying shame. Maybe people shy away thinking she's going to be another precious folk-singing, Lillith Fair refugee? Maybe she's too smart for the general public, who miss the irony of her songs? Could be. Her one hit, "I Kissed A Girl" was a tongue-in-cheek commentary on Lesbian Chic but it unfairly branded her as a Gay performer, which she is not (not, to quote "Seinfeld," that there's anything wrong with that). Likewise, her other minor hit, from the soundtrack of the film "Clueless," was "Supermodel," a song about shallow young girls with shallow aspirations which was taken by many as an endorsement of such empty dreams. Really, I view her more as a wry, Randy Newman sensibility with a Cyndi Lauper-esque voice. Her music is very poppy, in a classic '60s & '70s way (Carole King, the Kinks, early Bowie), [...]. She has a knack for taking on serious and/or dark subject matter in a very light, hilarious manner (Prozac users on "Happy Town" from the album of the same name, extra-marital affairs on "Girl in the Affair" from her self-titled CD). And she shines a light on desperate outsiders with compassion (i.e., "Mary Kay," her ode to Ms. Latorneau on "Pink Pearl"). Here, on "Underdog," it is the central theme of all the songs. From washed-up showbiz personality Joey Heartherton ("Joey"), to chubby young queers in the making ("Underdog Victorious"), from a cokehead couple ("Last Line") to Israeli prostitutes ("Tel Aviv"), Jill presents them all in a delicate balacing act of tenderness and back-handed comedy. Think of her as the Christopher Guest of pop. The music here is as buoyant and tuneful as any you'll encounter. All in all, this collection may just be her best yet... and that's high praise, indeed. You should really check this unjustly neglected artist out - she smart, funny, and writes fantastic pop songs. And, if you're still skeptical, consider that this review comes from a guy who also counts Zappa, Little Feat, and Tom Waits as favorite artists.

Sobule threads the needle, yet again---her songs take an unflinching view of life but never lapse into bitterness, corrode the soul, or dilute the spirit. The last track---it was put there for a reason--- 'Thank Misery" lets you know that she has taken a different road, one often full of pain, but hey, without it she never would have found her way to us, and blessed us with her talent. "If I hadn't always been depressed/I'd have climbed that golden ladder of success/and ,if I hadn't been so blue/thanks misery for bringing me to you."
She keeps to her format---there are whimsy songs("Jetpack" where she glides high above the city), the nerd prevails song("Underdog Victorious" which is sung with such joy that the meadering lyrics don't really matter) and the painful growing up number("Strawberry Gloss" where a gangly girl dreams of a happier future). All good, all classic Sobule.
There is also one surprise, a turning of her talent ,"Tel Aviv" where a young prostitute, an immigrant, dreams of home as a customer picks her
and takes her. It is a spare number, no frills, just raw emotion---make all the rawer---with Sobule's understated lyrics. An achievment.
Oh by the way the liner notes come with a crossword puzzle, a homage to her hobby of solving crossword puzzles in her spare time. And the puzzle, like her work, is accessible.

Sometimes it kills me that Jill Sobule isn't an International Sensation. She writes a mean song, plays a mean guitar, and connects with her audience in ways that most performers can't even begin to imagine - yet she toils away in relative obscurity. "Underdog Victorious: isn't going to lift her into the ranks of Britney or Madonna, but it's yet another solid, engaging, totally awesome effort from the patron saint(ess) of the slightly-skewed. She has the unique ability to connect with her listeners and get us to laugh at our own dorkiness.
Jill's sympathetic and satirical eye never blinks - and we're all luckier for it.
Brava!

Jill Sobule seems to get better with each album, and her latest release, Underdog Victorious, just may be her best yet. There's a great blend of folk, pop, and rock, upbeat and down, joy and cynicism, fun with heartache underneath. And it's deliciously retro, referencing the Beatles, Chicago, and other music of the 60s and 70s as much as Jill's earlier albums. This is most obvious on "Cinnamon Park," a remake of "Saturday in the Park" with new lyrics, but it's evident on other songs as well. She still has her trademark storytelling and wry humor, but there's a new maturity too, or a sense that she's grown up and it's not all she'd imagined it would be. On "Freshman" she sings "I live like a freshman/I still have a roommate" and later "You don't have a roommate/You own your own building/You have a flat-screen tv/You never followed your dreams/They're never what they seem.

This sense of dreams and disappointment pervades Underdog Victorious from the fantasy of "Jetpack" to the reality of the settler-turned-prostitute in "Tel Aviv" and the not-as-great-as-it-seems life of "Joey." It culminates in "Thank Misery" in which she looks back on what might have been. The song ends "If I could go back in a time machine/I wouldn't buy a ticket, well maybe. But I'm so happy now I swear it's true/ Thank misery for bringing me to you."

Jill Sobule has been a guilty pleasure of ours ever since her novelty, semi-hit, `I Kissed a Girl', the ninety's equivalent of `Girls Just Want to Have Fun'. In that song, Sobule displayed an attractive combination of wit, daring, sexiness, tunefulness, and fun, which have been trademarks of her work ever since. As if those attributes would not be reason enough to recommend a performer, Sobule's artistry extends much deeper than that, especially on this, her most fully realized album to date. She is as astute an observer of the human condition as, virtually, any songwriter out there and capable of conveying those observations with clarity, humor, compassion and grace. Perhaps the songwriter she most resembles is Randy Newman. Like Newman, Sobule frequently sings from the first person perspective of a character she has created-the struggling artist who still lives like a `Freshman', the young girl forced into prostitution in `Tel Aviv', the victim of a relationship doomed by cocaine use-always with a sensitivity, conciseness, and authenticity that, in a three plus minute song, is quite remarkable. Sobule cares about and identifies with the underdogs (as the cd title would indicate), most frequently of the female persuasion, not only of her own creation but real life ones like showbiz flash-in-the pan Joey Heatherton (on `Joey' on this cd) or star-crossed child-lover Mary Kay Latourneau (on `Mary Kay' from `Pink Pearl'). At the same time, Sobule, again like Mr. Newman, is also capable of writing something as lovely, simple and direct as `Tender Love' and `Nothing Natural'. As a musician, Sobule is truly versed in the pop canon. Her songs are always melodic and frequently beautiful with well-crafted performances and tight production. If there are caveats, they are her occasional tendency to drift toward the edges of `bubblegum' music and her Betty Boopish voice, which can be an acquired taste. We strongly urge you to take the time to acquire it, though, for this is a fine album by an undeservedly, underexposed artist-a true Underdog Victorious.

You find a lot of various fields in music. Here it's about songs, whether it's poppy, up tempo stuff ("Joey", "Underdog Victorious", "Cinnamon Park"...) or tender, sincere, heartful, vulnerable ballads ("Freshman", "Jetpack", "Tender Love", "The Last Line"...). This is the Beatles and the Kinks field, that tasty "pop music" which indeed has nothing to do with Britney Spears and co (some people call that "pop music" too). Jill Sobule is simply one of the finest singer songwriters today. She's subtle, witty, personal, moving, funny, and has all what can enrich your life and your soul forever.

Jill Sobule's "Underdog Victorious" has a thoughtful charm, but this will come to no surprise to her fans. Thoughtful charm is one of Jill's defining qualities.

She continues to provide voyeuristic glimpses into the lives of people, both real and imagined. "Freshman" is a lighthearted lament over achieving one's childhood dream of becoming a singer only to find it's not what you'd imagined. The title track is an up-beat tale of nerdy triumph. "Under the Disco Ball" pokes fun at the hypocrites who would protect us from the "gay conspiracy". "Tel Aviv" is a dark story of a girl in a bad situation. "Joey" chronicles the life of Joey Heatherton.

A favorite of mine is the bittersweet "Thank Misery". It reminds me that there may have been trouble and pain in my life, those same events led me to the love and happiness I've found with my wife. It makes me feel a certain gratitude toward every girl who ever dumped me.

Once again, Jill provides more than your money's worth.

This was one of my favorite albums of 2005, and I still pull it out often for repeat listens. "Underdog Victorious" is easily her best album since "Jill Sobule" almost made her a star with "I Kissed a Girl." But I have long been a sucker for this kind of perfectly realized pop: a brilliant balance of peppy upbeat songs like "Cinnamon Park" (which gleefully cribs from Chicago's "Saturday in the Park" and should have been all over radio) to the intimate "Thank Misery."

Jill's forte has always been character songs (like "Mary Kay" on "Pink Pearl" or "Underachiever" on "Happy Town"), and "Underdog Victorious" will not let you down there. In fact, her best song in that genre since "I Kissed A Girl" is the title track, a T-Rex/Mott The Hoople (Jill has been known to play "All The Young Dudes" live) ode to misfit wannabe rock stars.

"A couple years later tried out for the band
Did covers of Matchbox 20.
But he was dreaming of the New York Dolls
And Max's Kansas City.
Of course they never called him back,
they thought he was too queer.
But he didn't care, back in his room
he sang into the mirror.
And he sang, Underdog Victorious."

Why this - and "Cinnamon Park" - could not get the attention of melody deficient radio breaks my mind. But even more of a stunner is "Tel Aviv," the dark and spare story of a teen-aged sex slave forced into prostitution. It's a dark turn into territory bleaker than Jill usually heads for, at least not since "Evian" from her "Things Here Are Different" debut. Almost as dark but not as biting is "Under The Disco Ball" a brief and funny turn against religious hypocrisy and homophobia. It's the stuff Warren Zevon (whom Jill toured with and covered "Don't Let Us Get Sick") excelled at, and Jill pays tribute to her friend by matching his wit and ironic observatory skills all across "Underdog Victorious." (It seems no small coincidence that Jill is now on Aretmis Records, who released Zevon's "The Wind.")

The package is also a treat; initially I learned of the album's release via NPR when Jill dropped in on puzzle master Will Shortz. It is his humorous crossword puzzle art on the CD booklet, and Jill played "Cinnamon Park" on the show as well as a snippet of the title track. I was floored...this artist that I had enjoyed in the 90's was back and I hadn't known. Don't let that happen to you. In a rare case of an artist creating some of her best work over a decade into her career, Jill Sobule has a triumphant album in "Underdog Victorious."