Once this decade approaches its end, people will start arguing about the dominating trends. Grunge and techno may be the buzzwords in the media, but in the opinion of many music fans, this could well be considered the decade of women, and Jill Sobule should be viewed as one of their leading figures.
While her first two albums did not score very high commercially, she still created a minor stir with the song "I Kissed A Girl" off her last album (some people seem to think that a girl kissing another girl is worse than shooting a dozen people - food for thought). Happy Town looks like a natural progression from her previous work, widening the musical scope without giving up any of her very own qualities. The harder sounds on songs like the title track do not distract from her sometimes fragile, yet clear voice at all; they only seem to underline it even more. The spectrum goes all the way from intimately slow songs like "Little Guy" to the upbeat "Bitter". Also featured is a surprising collaboration with Steve Earle (!) on "Love Is Never Equal".
Despite the convincing musical qualities, at the center of the songs are still the lyrics. They are rarely about spectacular events, but mostly about emotions. Sobule has a unique talent to capture feelings in words, she often makes you think like "I recognize this feeling exactly, I could just never express it that well." A remarkable step outside the personal scope is the song "Soldiers Of Christ", which deals with the growing number of people who seem to have completely misunderstood the true meaning of religion, and brings their dangerous attitude precisely on the point ("our Lord hates the liberals, the faggots and their friends").
Happy Town maintains the high level of Jill Sobule's previous two albums, and may even be her best so far. It is a must for all fans of female singer/songwriters, and heartily recommended to all lovers of fine music with some deepness.
