Jill Sobule

Like Cyndi Lauper, Jill Sobule comes off as the kooky little girl next door, all giggle and high-pitched eccentricity. But just as Lauper proved that a multi-dimensional woman dwells inside the facade, so does Sobule. Her perky melodies and stark instrumentation aid the album's true centerpiece--her quirky lyrics. Sobule's songs are anecdotal short stories, and here's a brief tour of the characters who inhabit them: "Margaret," who was the most popular girl in St. Mary's High School and is now a porn actress; Karen, a proper shoestore manager who becomes a thieving, leather-clad biker at night; the lovers warring between themselves and the lovers caught in the Bosnian War on "Vrbana Bridge"; the "Girl In The Affair," waiting in the airy bossa nova background; and, in the most unlikely pop hit of the year, the girl who kissed a girl. Sobule's active imagination is poetically and articulately expressed in her catchy, well-conceived songs. And she's a lovable wacko. It's in her voice, her lyrics, the accordions, snares, violins, knee-slaps, and the drunk-sounding back-up singers. It's obvious she had fun recording this.