This came out in 2000 — or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
If you remember singer-songwriter Jill Sobule at all, it’s probably for her 1995 hit I Kissed A Girl. What you probably don’t remember is her last album — 1997’s more maturely themed Happy Town, which much slippd through the cracks and nudged the singer-songwriter closer to one-hit wonderdom (or two if you count Supermodel from the Clueless soundtrack).
If there’s any justice, her fourth album Pink Pearl will rectify the situation. For starters, it contains just a touch of the sexual double-entendres that worked the first time around — what, you don’t think that title just refers to an eraser, do you? But more importanly, Pink Pearl features some of the smartest pop songwriting I’ve heard since the days when Elvis Costello’s aim was true. Mexican Wrestler finds her yearning to be a masked grappler to crack the ribs of the guy whose heart she can’t dent; the Brian Wilsonesque Rainy Day Parade finds her smirkingly rhyming “We’ll have a celebration” with “Getting back on my medication”; and I’m pretty sure I’ve never heard anybody name-check Jesus, Lou Reed and Ernest Borgnine in the same song like she does on Loveless Motel. How can you not wanna kiss someone like that?
