Deep Album Cuts Vol. 385: Jill Sobule
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Jill Sobule passed away a couple weeks ago at the age of 66. She's best known for her two 1995 hits "I Kissed A Girl" and "Supermodel," but she'd grown into a respected cult artist in the decades since then.
2. Mexican Wrestler
3. Karen By Night
4. Love Is Never Equal (with Steve Earle)
5. Disinformation
6. Heroes
7. Empty Glass
8. Freshman
9. Nothing To Prove
10. Lucy At The Gym
11. Clever
12. Don't Let Us Get Sick
13. Vrbana Bridge
14. Flight (Jet Plane Charm)
15. Statue of Liberty (Statue of Liberty Charm)
16. Loveless Motel
17. Where Is Bobbie Gentry?
18. Tomorrow Is Breaking (with John Doe)
19. Golden Cage
20. Tell Me I've Won
21. Jetpack
22. (Theme From) The Girl In The Affair
23. Rock Me To Sleep
24. A Good Life
Tracks 5 and 19 from Things Here Are Different (1990)
Tracks 3, 13, and 22 from Jill Sobule (1995)
Tracks 4 and 11 from Happy Town (1997)
Tracks 2, 6, 10, 16, and 23 from Pink Pearl (2000)
Tracks 8 and 21 from Underdog Victorious (2004)
Tracks 7 and 20 from Jill Sobule Sings Prozak and the Platypus (2008)
Tracks 9, 17, and 24 from California Yearrs (2009)
Tracks 14 and 15 from Dottie's Charms (2014)
Track 1, 12, and 18 from Nostalgia Kills (2018)
I think of Jill Sobule sort of like Aimee Mann, as a consummate songwriter's songwriter who just happened to have a mainstream hit or two but always seemed to do fine without making songs for the radio. They also both released their solo debuts on Geffen in the early '90s but didn't last long on the label, finding a bigger audience elsewhere, and both worked with cantankerous elder statesmen types. Todd Rundgren produced Things Here Are Different and Sobule toured with Warren Zevon multiple times. I guess they had a bit of kinship as people known for novelty hits, and "I Kissed A Girl" was no more representative of her catalog than "Werewolves of London" was of his. Sobule covered one of my favorite late period Zevon deep cuts, "Don't Let Us Get Sick," for a tribute album, and also put it on one of her albums as a bonus track, and today it's her third most streamed song behind her two big singles.
I think Pink Pearl is probably Sobule's best album because when I was listening to it and selecting songs to consider for this playlist, I initially picked literally every song on the album that wasn't a single. It's just full of gems and has very interesting, detailed arrangements. Pink Pearl's "Heroes" and "Disinformation" from her debut both feel like pretty prescient songs in terms of how Sobule wrote about topics like political disinformation and problematic celebrities, like if I'd just heard those songs with no context I'd assume they came out in the last five years. Of course, her two big hits address things like bisexuality and eating disorders with both humor and humanity, and it's in general impressive hearing how she wrote about topics like love, self esteen, and depression in these songs. I also really like the frank way she writes about the life of a middle class musician "Freshman" and "Nothing To Prove."
Sobule co-wrote the songs on Dottie's Charms with an assortment of notable writers, with each song being about a different charm on a charm bracelet. Jonathan Lethem co-wrote "Statue of Liberty (Statue of Liberty Charm)" and Vendela Vida co-wrote "Flight (Jet Plane Charm)." Santana drummer Michael Shrieve plays on Sobule's debut, and he does some amazing in the second half of "Golden Cage."Sobule appeared as herself in a 2003 episode of "The West Wing," performing "Heroes" and "Rock Me To Sleep." I also realized while putting this together that Sobule co-wrote the Eels song "Manchild" and is the voice heard on the answering machine in that track.
Sobule's final concert was about a week before her death, opening for The Fixx in Illinois, and the last song she performed publicly was an unreleased tune "It's Just As Easy To Be Nice As It Is To Be An Asshole" (also known as "Commie Dyke Jew"). The last song she played before that was "Karen At Night," which is absolutely one of her very best, one of those songs that should've been a hit in a better world where Jill Sobule had lots of hits.
"A Good Life" felt like a really beautiful song to end the playlist with, a song where she imagine all sorts of life-ending catastrophes and having a very zen, content response to it all. Sobule reportedly died in a housefire, which seems like a horrible and terrifying way to go, and I can only hope she didn't suffer long, and that her final thoughts were something like the lyrics of "A Good Life."
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on Tuesday, May 20, 2025 at 11:03 AM.
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