Search - Jill Sobule :: Pink Pearl

Clever and Cute

Belinda | CA United States | 05/22/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"JS has a very pretty if rather small voice. Her lyrics are smart and different. Songs are catchy. I'm surprised none of the tracks from Pink Pearl were hits. She's a good singer-songwriter who deserves more recognition. Check her out."

I can crack your ribs but I can't break your heart

Tim Brough | Springfield, PA United States | 09/13/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Jill Sobule is a smart and witty songwriter who keeps gaining maturity with each progressive CD. "Pink Pill" is a more enjoyable recording than Happy Town, in that the songs seem less dark and more peppy. The character songs are still the ringers here, from the body maniac with low self-image in "Lucy At The Gym" who discovers that everyone in heaven is perfect to "Mary Kay," about Mary Kay Letourneau, the teacher who had sex with a 13-year-old student.



I have two favorites on "Pink Pearl," and they are the wonderfully sad tale of unrequited love in "Mexican Wrestler" and the darkly funny "Heroes." In the later, Jill bemoans the fact that all the folks she looked up to creatively were train-wrecks.



"William Faulkner, drunk and depressed.

Dorothy Parker, mean, drunk and depressed,

And that guy in Seven Years in Tibet turned out to be a Nazi.

The founding fathers all had slaves.

The explorers slaughtered the braves.

The Old Testament God can be so petty."



All set on top of a great shuffle with a goofy electric piano solo. The only artists who reach these kinds of musical epiphanies would be Aimee Mann (a lot of "Pink Pearl" is reminiscent of Mann's "Bachelor No. 2") and the late Warren Zevon, who Jill often toured with. While I still rate her second album and "Underdog Victorious" as her better albums, there is still plenty to enjoy on "Pink Pearl.""