Artemis
2004
Underdog Victorious
About This Album
Singer/songwriter Jill Sobule's quirky tales of love, loss, and human frivolity would seem precious and cloying in the hands of a lesser interpreter. Underdog Victorious, her first release of all-new material since 2000's Pink Pearl -- she put out a retrospective the following year -- features all of the sarcasm, wit, keen observation, and big-sister charm that fans have come to expect from the tenacious New Yorker. Sobule inhabits each of her characters with an equal amount of empathy and motherly whimsy, whether it be Third World prostitutes ("Tel Aviv"), "Strawberry Gloss"-wearing teen princesses, or closeted boys wilting beneath the Bible-clenched fists of intolerant fathers ("Under the Disco Ball") -- the latter, with its refrain of "they have a scheme/they have a plan/to take the children of our land/turn them into stylists and women who play golf," is like 1995's "I Kissed a Girl"'s younger sibling. Sobule is a true pop aficionado, and her melodies have never suffered from the run-of-the-mill, singer/songwriter trappings of the genre, so when she builds an entire song off of the piano riff from Chicago's "Saturday in the Park" -- the ludicrously catchy first single, "Cinnamon Park" -- it never feels calculated.
Track List (try tracks 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 and 10)

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