Could the new Liz Phair be any worse

1. a stupefying blandness
2. songs sound like Sheryl Crow throwaways
3. phair is still not a singer--she's a stylist. But here they once again try to make her sound like a singer
4. the rock songs are canned crap
5. she seems to have no personality
6. obligatory masturbatory song hot white cum is unbelievable contrived. Worse, it's boring.
7. "Take a Look" is the only thing that recalls her earlier work, though it's embarassingly overproduced. Who the fuck does that lame solo/bridge in the bridge? Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad.
8. Virtually every song has the grubby handprints of a song doctor--yes, the Matrix has been here. So has Michael Penn (though you'd never be able to guess) and others.

Liz is foxy. At her best, she was a snarky cocktease with a dirty mouth and lapsing empathy.

Just to make sure, I went back last week and listened to the Girly Sound tapes. 11 years later, they still stun me. I can't think of anyone else of my indie-rock generation who has so completely betrayed his or her talent.

back to normative pride...

Agreed.

A re-styled Phair is the dream of some cigar-smoking VP of marketing, and it will be his demise. What happened to her own stuff? [Now I'm wondering if it ever was her "own"].

FWIW, Phair has been bragging that some legal loophole allowed her to regain the ownership of the Exile masters and the Girlysound tapes. This being the ten year anniverary of that release and all, she's alleging to do an expanded release late in the year.

LIZ PHAIR JOINS AXIS OF AVRIL
http://www.ab-fab.nl/graphics/abgood.jpg

And she's NOT hot.

I used to wonder if maybe the reason "Girlysound" wasn't released commercially is because so many of the songs are "covers" and/or use elements of other songs, and Matador can't afford to pay all those royalties. But Matador has released at least one all-covers record (Cat Power), so that can't be right. (And I know nothing about the economics of royalties.)

If you are hard up for Liz info, check the mesmerizing website. Coy little skank that she is.

It is very Avril-polished-pop, but I think most of it is great polished-pop.

I have a feeling I'm going to spend the rest of the year very alone when it comes to this album.

I fear that calling her album a "fucking turd" has led to some confusion.

Let me go track by track so that everyone has a more clear idea what we're talking about here:

1 - "Exraordinary" - this would be a decent Liz Phair song if it was a recognizable Liz Phair song. But they've rubbed her vulnerable personality (or whatever it was circa 1992-3) into something indistinguishable.
2 - "Scared" - a total Avril ripoff with half the heart and half the chops. Liz Phair is not a singer, and her vocal talents are thin. This is being generous. These songs were not written (er, produced) with her in mind, and this song is a perfect example. It sounds like a song that didn't get accepted for Avril's album.
3 - "Why Can't I" - More egregious filler material in the form of overproduction. The cadence of this song is right off Dawson's Creek. It sounds like product placement.The lyrics are even worse.
4 - "You're In Love With Me" - There's all this space age electronica going on in the background of what once could have been a decent song. Picture a 5th-rate Mirwais at the board with a rack of fake guitars and you get the picture.
5 - "Rock Me" - so clean, so polished, so fucking tuneless. At this point, the producting is outright distracting. The chorus is kinda cool, except for the unbelievably trite lyrics. Dude, she talks about Xbox in this song. What-evah.
6 - "Take A Look" - sounds like a whitechocolatespacegg song. I like this song, actually. An album full of this was what I expected.
7 - "My Mother Is Fine" - a pretty sparse song, considering the company on this album. And actually, it would be great if it was even more sparse. But the piano takes it to Gilmore Girls territory.
8 - "Firewalker" - another decent, more traditional Phair song completely smothered by a thousand cooks and a million dollars in the kitchen.
9 - "My Favorite Underwear" - The lyrics are as bad as you think, and the singsong melody is paired with a generic chorus in a fashion that turns this track into something sensationally nondescript. But hey, if you've got a crap song, throw in some "provocative" lyrics and maybe people won't notice the mediocrity.
10 - "It's a War" - this is kind of a fun rock song, in kind of Styx sort of way--kind of that carnival keyboard deal that really ups the pagentry factor and all. Except that Liz Phair's voice has no business being on this song. The lyrics are a disaster--cloying, cliched, zzzzzzzzzzzz.
11 - "Hot White Cum" - The worst song she's ever committed to tape. Maybe this was funny or affecting when she demoed it, but after they autotuned her and let her play with a metronome (or whomever the studio drummer was) they managed suck every bit of life out of this song. Not that it took much. "Hot White Cum"? How charmingly insightful (and oh so coy!) for a 36 year old.
12 - "Bionic Eyes" - led in yet by another daring space age loop, Liz hooks up her deadpan vox with a vapid bunch of verses. The chorus is decent, but the rest of the song sounds like it was put together by a committee reading an instruction book. Strip this song down and it would sound at home on Whip-Smart.
13 - "Friend of Mine" - Another sort of mature, sweet song that sounds like something left off of whitechocolatespacegg. Second best song on the album, but who the fuck thought some sweeping strings (okay, so it's sythns w/chorus effect) would make this better?
14 - "Let the Night Come" - I swear to you, the multitracked harmonies on this track occasionally recall the Carpenters,except of course that we all know Liz is not Karen nor does she have Karen's alto. But I think Sheryl Crow has a couple songs like this in her catalog that turned out better.

There are two problems with this album, and they are obvious: 1) the songs just aren't all that good and 2) the production does not bring out the best of Liz Phair. Instead, it covers it up.

I loved Exile (still do) and think Whip Smart was a smart, strong followup. WCSE was - eh - not bad but nothing to get too excited over but seeing the hate for the new album is depressing. If it is as bad as ppl are syaiing, what the happened to Liz?

Doug Wolk said that this was the biggest betrayal of talent in his indie rock generation --- is the album really that bad?

R.I.P.

CBGB/OMFUG T or not, it ain't gonna happen anytime soon.

V

I thought Douglas Wolk was just exaggerating for effect, but he wasn't: this is an artistic betrayal of staggering proportions. Listening to it scares me, because I recognize that voice as superficially belonging to Liz Phair but I can't hear her on this album anywhere. It's Invasion of the Body Snatchers: The Album. And it's not the hi-gloss production or the Matrix songwriting credits that's at fault so much as the lyrics.

It's sad that Liz has resorted to stealing from Maya Angelou's poetry.

"I want to play Xbox on your floor
Say hi to your roommate who's next door
You don't have a dime, but I don't mind
Who gives a damn

Your record collection don't exist
You don't even know who Liz Phair is"

Never thought she was all that great, anyway. Only bought Exile in Guyville when it came out because I didn't know better. I don't feel as betrayed as some of her more rabid fans might, but I know a doublecross when I see one.

Sterling is the resurrection? Sterling is the life?

I am extraordinary, if you'd ever get to know me

you wait around years for something this awful, thank you thank you Liz Phair

Does anyone know of a better break up song than "Divorce Song"?
"And it's also true that I lost the map". Amen.

-- don weiner

Sorry to say it, but it sounds like another last gasp from an artist in the throes of deep block or "deeply out of wad" syndrome.

am I the only one who notices that Pink sounds like Liz Phair on "Get the Party Started"?

and I quite like extraordinary -- certainly more hooky & meandering than Avril &c.

Whoa -- that to my mind spells contradiction. I mean, I like the concept if it happens...

V

Then again I've been known to do this myself.

I was always told my girls in college that Exile meant a lot to them during their formative years blah blah. Is that true? I remember it being one of the few pieces of indie rock (broadly defined) that was played on the Adult Album Alternative station in Chicago, and I remember thinking it was pretty unexceptional.

But I like the idea of having a squad of girls who had my back in college.

this is GREAT!!!

gotta love indie logic.

"Bollywood" likely one of the worst songs I've ever heard by anyone.

http://lizphair.com/

AHHHHHHHHHHH EVERY1 HAS TO LISTEN TO THIS

I'm finding the '7 years pass...' to be a piquant comment in and of itself.

I am one of the only people on earth who liked the single on her last record, but this is an atrocity.

wau

holy crap

Get a taste of Liz Phair

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDpUJjVfpOU&feature=player_embedded#!

This kinda reminds me of "Rico Suave" only not as good.

Only Liz Phair would go around and interview people about her own record.

o_O

you guys ... the album cover ...

http://magiska.vlsweb.net.br/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Funstyle_Cover_Image-400x400.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9EbOXYenJY&feature=related

haha she sounds like princess superstar on that new song.

Princess Superstar fronting 2NU.

Some of the other songs sound okay though.

Man, that Bollywood track sounds like MIA after a lobotomy and way too much ketamine. Only heard of this woman via ILX to be honest, don't think she made much of an impact in the UK. Pretty big Stateside huh?

I think it's supposed to sound that way (see album cover).

it's embarrassing
even worse, it's embarrassing and boring

:(

wow, rico suave comparison otm

Don Newkirk cameo?

I used to work with her dad

she has to be trolling right

I just heard "Oh, Bangladesh" -- it sounds like an attempt to return to Whitechocolatespaceegg but with a Somebody's Miracle cast-off.

Just got around to listening to this...it defines fontrum.

Actually, after two listens, this is far from terrible.

I haven't been able to convince myself to listen to the rest of the album yet, but I keep hearing charitable things being said. I'll do it, but I still anticipate the worst.

"congratulations Liz...you just recorded your first number one hit single!"

omgomg i don't even know what to say about BOLLYWOOD !

i literally just started cracking up in the middle while my boyfriend is asleep next to me

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i rly don't know

Surm you should hire yourself out as advice-giver to your heroes and prevent them from follies.

SERIOUSLY!

Right now, for instance, I've been in front of a computer for almost fourteen hours. Help!

You know what though, I bet when Elvis was recording Blue Suede Shoes everybody on the internet was like "what a load of absolute crap, this is embarrassing". Liz Phair may be onto something way bigger than any of us can comprehend

it's terrible but ... i kind of love it. the 10-year past-due bhangra beat, the rapping, the complaining-about-record-labels, it's all kind of adorable. and obviously like she doesn't really give a shit if anyone listens to her or buys the record, right?

and the second time through it just cracks me up. i think i'm on liz's side here.

xpost

makes sense, she obviously doesn't care what anyone thinks about her website either

that's right liz phair, i dissed your website, ICE COLD

S E Oh snap! (free mp3s)

haha she sounds like princess superstar on that new song.

otm, especially re the whole meta-music-biz themes

First time listening; I am laughing as well. I kind of love this.

Bollywood sounds like Kevin Blechdom.

u guys

i'm listening to it again

Couldn't finish :(

Is the rest of this album like this?

maybe the rest of the album is a 35 minute drone

haaaahahahahahahahahaha

is that even a song

it's so much more

is this somehow supposed to be like a jab at MIA's manufactured backstory?

at any rate, it is caca. D-

^ the truth, in a whitechocolatespaceegg

Finally someone makes the industry critique on the 4th consolidated album seem piquant and deep by comparison.

Note: I am amazed by this as a thing, but I also spent an hour tonight trying to convince a dude to watch "I accidentally domed your son" so

kinda has this laurie anderson call/response thing goin on

guys stop making me want to listen to a Liz Phair song

HOLY SHIT

You guys I am linking this here. Dan, you have to listen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJ7tGcLcwwY

I love how quickly this is becoming the new Showgirls

IT'S A TRAP, DON'T LISTEN

hahahahahahaha

that is so bad

Listening to the thing all morning, I'm still left holding a handful of air. The strummy guitar songs are tuneful and amiable enough. The jokey numbers, though, confuse me – is Phair so deluded about the size of her record sales that she thinks she can play with her public image? But I like her imitation of an airhead.

That's an imitation? Sounds like it comes pretty naturally to me.

Matt LeMay revisits his 0.0 review of the 2003 album: http://www.mbvmusic.com/2010/07/07/liz-phairs-2003-self-titled-album-is-still-terrible/26971#more-26971

After my Pitchfork review ran, I received a volley of e-mails pointing me to some interviews Phair gave around the time of Liz Phair’s release. In these interviews, Phair explained that she made a “commercial” record in an effort to be a responsible grown-up, to make a financially successful record, and to support her family. By not liking the record, I was implicitly putting down women of a certain age, women with children, women in general, women in music, and/or women of a certain age in music. If I were Liz Phair’s friend and not a music critic, you could accuse me of not supporting her life choices. But, for better or worse, Liz Phair is an artist. And haphazardly contorting your art to better suit a potentially lucrative fad — whether it’s “teen pop” or “glo-fi” — is not something that we, as critics, should have to make excuses for.

It isn’t fair to hate on Liz Phair for not being an indie rock record. But it is fair to call out Liz Phair for being a limp, cynical and half-assed pop record.

oh god it's bad

"Bollywood" makes the Liz Phair s/t album sound like Purple Rain in contrast.

It's awesome, as is the album. And her 2003 album that caused all the suicides

Unfortunately quite a few indie males remain.

I never hated the 2003 album, fwiw. But I've never been a big fan of hers anyway, so it just seemed like a natural progression to me (OH HAI I'M LIZ AND I HOP ON BANDWAGONS). Funstyle is probably the first time in her career where I haven't been able to figure out what she's aiming for.

forgot about this

Somebody's Miracle was originally modeled after another canonical album, Songs in the Key of Life by Stevie Wonder, though only elements of this exist in the final product. At an estimated 84,000 copies, Somebody's Miracle remains Phair's lowest selling LP to date.

she sucks at sell-out

only elements of this exist in the final product

Elements?

notes and stuff

"Look, a thing!"

The acrostic of the first seven lines of one of the songs spells out "Sir Duke"

"Stevie's use of the F# really pushed me through the creative process"

Perhaps she could have gone this route:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTsxpVcQtL4

"I loved how his clavinet reminded me of the sound of my larynx."

She could have gone this route:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03OElvyEoNs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03OElvyEoNs

can somebody force dan to listen to this, because i need to experience his reaction

He might die.

to Celine doing "I Wish"?

Where's Linda Ronstadt doing "You Haven't Done Nothin'"?

Celine is actually covering Skee-Lo.

the route she probably actually tried:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFK6H_CcuX8

can somebody force dan to listen to this, because i need to experience his reaction

^^^^ PLEASE ^^^^

Did anyone read M@ura's ramble about this? Gave up after the first page (much like I gave up about a minute into "Bollywood")

liz phair song is remarkably bad (just listened to the whole thing after bailing on the comedy voices a couple days ago). i get that it's supposed to be silly & self-mocking, but it's awful however you take it. like laurie anderson with all the wit removed, and so completely lost in time. seems to come from some bad, alternate 1990, like it's supposed to slot in next to soho or something. updated with c2K missy beats? can't make sense of it & can't believe it's an actual album track.

people

stop comparing this to laurie anderson

wtf

Seriously, my 2NU comparison upthread is way more on the money.

well, i was just picking up on what was said before... but it's hard to hear this particular voice pitch shifted in this particular way without immediately snapping to "sharkey's night". and bringing up LA is an attempt to construct a conceptual frame in which the song might make sense - even though it still doesn't. but yeah, it's a tenuous comparison at best.

also, liz's attempt to comment on herself as an object presented for consumption smacks of conceptual art, or of certain ideas about such art, which (along with the sonic palette) links easily/lazily back to LA

it sounds more to me like she's fucking around. which i don't object to in principle, tho obv there are plenty more inspired examples. anyway i'm about to pay 6 bucks for the album out of mere curiosity, and that's more money than i've spent on a liz phair album in a long time.

It certainly won't be the worst album to released on-line this year.

My hate isn't growing.

omg i would not pay for an album with that song on it if my life depended on it

like obviously she is v confused, and some kind of drug, or something, or coming off a year or 2 on drugs during which she did nothing but fry her brain

am about to watch this celine tho

<3 u ramz

lol

hahaha I am never listening to this

just the way she says "portfolio" is grounds for dismissal
it's hard to recover from that when it's the first line of the song

I am sitting here laughing/crying over the Celine video.

I wish she had covered Skee-Lo.

My peen-ius got limp.

dude, i would kill to go to celine's vegas show!

So would I!

i would only kill to go to celine's vegas show if it was with ramzi

So would I!!!!

I'm afraid we'd be the only men present.

oh no you wouldn't, my wife went to one and you would have company aplenty

You didn't go with her? You bastard!

i would only kill to go to celine's vegas show if it was with ramzi

― altered scones (J0rdan S.), Thursday, July 8, 2010 3:38 AM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

So would I!!!!

― https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uSTXn4H5jY (Stevie D), Thursday, July 8, 2010 3:42 AM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

we would have such a time!! :D

lol stevie that's what you get when you italicize your sn

There should seriously be a Celine/Vegas ilx meet up.

As soon as the concert's over we should go here.

Have to wait until March but...

http://www.celinedion.com/celinedion/english/whatsgoinon_vegas.html

You sick bastard, Alfred. You mean here.

I'll only go if Dan sings "Where Does My Heart Beat Now" in the atrium.

Near, far, etc.

Victor Davis Hanson would start crying when "My Heart Will Go On" starts up.

Near, far, etc

http://www.sfu.ca/classics/history/VDH.jpg

...see, I can hear him sing that. Sadly.

Celine is actually covering Skee-Lo.

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, July 7, 2010 3:58 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

I believed you & was really stoked for it

You didn't go with her? You bastard!

It was a last-minute ticket given to her by a friend

tbh I respect Celine but I don't know if I could make it through one of her shows (although I've already been told that we will be going to Vegas to see her show)

I would go if I was promised 600 gin and tonics in the lobby.

I believed you & was really stoked for it

I am sorry to have misled. (I want it to be real, so bad.)

I would go if I was promised 600 gin and tonics in the lobby.

Who are you, me?

http://fourfour.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451b8c369e20133eea9fa40970b-800wi

do u guys think that liz phair saw this thread and decided to answer the question?

Fuck and run.

Anyway:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHkj804LCl0

This is too good to be on the same thread as Bollywood.

I like to think of it as counteracting that nonsense.

http://fourfour.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451b8c369e20133eea9fa40970b-800wihttp://fourfour.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451b8c369e20133eea9fa40970b-800wihttp://fourfour.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451b8c369e20133eea9fa40970b-800wi

L-R
Surm, me, J0rdan

i'm the dude right in front of him

lol

michael stipe is hypnotic

plus, any other strong candidates for worst song of 2010? cuz that crabcore just ain't doing it for me no more.

jesus, Bollywood is repulsively bad. it's like she heard this cool new thing that's popular nowadays called Hippity Hoppity and thought, "hey, i could totally do that." it's like a pathetic imitation of MIA. as soon as i started listening to it i just wanted it to get away from my ears.

There's something really late-'90s about 'Bollywood', it's like Phair wanted to make a song mixing a load of contemporary genres together and turned to Beck's Midnite Vultures for inspiration.

She's drinking a Soy latte, She gets a double shot-ay, it goes all through her body

There's something really late-'90s about 'Bollywood', it's like Phair wanted to make a song mixing a load of contemporary genres together and turned to Beck's Midnite Vultures for inspiration.

― Gavin in Leeds, Wednesday, July 7, 2010 11:43 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

this sounds like one of those G-rated parody raps they do on homestar runner.

only bad and not funny.

Every time I get to the spooky-voice " ... pulled out the CONNNNNTRACT ..." bit, all I can think of is one of the skit bits from "Dre Day."

http://imgur.com/wpTKi.png

And, honestly, "Bollywood" is way more fun to listen to than anything off of her last album; if all of Funstyle is just as bad as this, I can't wait to hear it. Still think that this song is just really effective trolling though.

this is... I mean...

waht

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

Ah, at last!

I was not really expecting it to be flat-out hilarious

You were never supposed to hear these songs. These songs lost me my management, my record deal and a lot of nights of sleep.
Yes, I rapped one of them. Im as surprised as you are. But here is the thing you need to know about these songs and the ones coming next: These are all me. Love them, or hate them, but dont mistake them for anything other than an entirely personal, un-tethered-from-the-machine, free for all view of the world, refracted through my own crazy lens.

This is my journey. Ill keep sending you postcards.

-Liz

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7_-BAtm3Ys

uh that's a lot worse than bollywood imo

I like this song actually.

the lol part is intentionally funny, so that makes it better than bollywood. This, on the other hand....

http://www.youtube.com/user/madeyes4u#p/u/5/megGQuCHfxI

sorry

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=megGQuCHfxI

This is my journey. Ill keep sending you postcards.

Returned for insufficient postage.

I guess she doesn't use Facebook or email.

Sex In the City 3: Bollywood

These songs lost me my management, my record deal

Anyone surprised?

Hey, it's the Moon Unit Zappa comeback album.

worst journey ever

"cocksucker blues" anyone? Metal Machine Music maybe? nah! she couldn't be that smart, amirite?

a song by song response to machine metal music is her next project

called Liz Can't Dance.

I think Liz should star and direct a Graffiti Bridge-like movie to tie all these songs together.

But her comeback is fucked now that "H.W.C." can't be her "Gett Off."

yes, that is why her comeback is fucked

cocksucker blues and metal machine music were both listenable, of course.

also artists usually drive themselves into the ditch when they're in the middle of the road, not when they've been stuck in their garage for five years

Holy crap, "Smoke" makes "Bollywood" sound like "Fuck and Run".

Sounds like a SNL parody of something from Beck's Odelay. Horrific.

I fucking love this song more and more every time I hear it and I need to hear this album ASAP

"Bollywood" totally winning me over, but I say this as somebody who feels "This Is Ponderous" is one of the great overlooked singles of my lifetime.

omg smoke hahahah, this is pretty great. When does this record come out again? Is the whole thing just a string of these goofy cut-up skits lampooning her own life as a washed-up onetime famed person? "I don't know John Mayer... I met him..."

xp:

Princess Superstar fronting 2NU.

― kkvgz, Tuesday, July 6, 2010 7:52 AM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark

; )

I mean granted it's all horrendously dated-sounding but most of the jokes have been funny at least once...I'm in favor of this direction for her.

can't believe the same girl who wrote Shane could've written this new stuff. don't get it.

it's kind of shockingly sad

you gotta have fear in ur heart.

Funstyle is getting the deluxe reissue treatment.

Hmmm:

"I’m working on a proper rock record, a good, old-school rock record. Finally. I had a lot of issues to work out," Phair says, laughing and slinking into her chair.

"But this record has been a very beautiful experience. I’m not going to screw up the production, either. I’m going to get this one right. I have my head screwed on right. I haven’t been this way in a long time."

She credits her performance in 2010 at the Matador's 21st anniversary concerts in Las Vegas as reinvigorating her approach to music. Phair shared a stage with the likes of Guided by Voices and Yo La Tengo, and even dueted with Ted Leo.

"Oh, my God, what a godsend that was," she says of the experience. "What an amazing homecoming. That ended a whole cycle of pain. It was a rebirth. I remembered who I once was, and they remembered not to hate me so much. They remembered that it’s not all that ferociously awful, what I have done."

As for her new record, Phair says she's targeting a more stripped-down, stark approach. She cites a few artists as inspiration. "I want the production to be kind of Jack White-ish, Ryan Adams-ish, that style of production," she says. "I want it to sound (messed)-up, but at a level of mastery that is respectable."

And for those still confused by the scattershot production of "Funstyle," which ranged from Bollywood to spoken-word goofiness, get over it. There's more where that came from, but Phair is now reticent to release it.

"I was going to do ‘Funstyle,’ ‘Funnerstyle’ and Funnererstyle.’ I’ve got all these songs, but I can’t handle people freaking out," she says. "There’s just all this bad material that really ought to be heard at some point."

"I had a lot of issues to work out."

god

I want the production to be kind of Jack White-ish, Ryan Adams-ish, that style of production,

god

"There’s just all this bad material that really ought to be heard at some point."

This is why we need publicists.

"I can't think of anyone else of my indie-rock generation who has so completely betrayed his or her talent."

ahhhh old ILM

I thought that was said about Alex Chilton?

Greil Marcus re: Rod Stewart iirc

Google says you're right, but I remember reading that said about Chilton many years ago.

The beginning of this thread is still so gross to me.

we'll always butthurt fans

we'll always have butthurt fans too

Are there any fervent Liz Phair fans remaining? Seems like every fan horrified by the realization that um actually she was Sheryl Crow -- that EIG represents the inevitability of recording with no money instead of an ethos -- is a dumb straight guy.

fervent FEMALE fans, I should say. I need dinner.

Seems like every fan horrified by the realization that um actually she was Sheryl Crow -- that EIG represents the inevitability of recording with no money instead of an ethos -- is a dumb straight guy.

I want to take issue with this statement, but I just haven't listened closely enough to her later albums to feel like I'd be on solid footing. (Never even heard the one that Christgau loved and everyone else compared to Avril Lavigne.) I do know that there's nothing on albums #2 and #3 that come anywhere close to "Divorce Song" or "Fuck and Run" for me--some good songs, but not close. None of which rules out me being a dumb straight guy.

Agreed on Whip-Smart but WCSE is close to her best album: a Sheryl Crow production with Liz Phair songs. I can't listen to "Divorce Song" without thinking of "Go On Ahead," "Uncle Alvarez," or at half a dozen WCSE tracks as sequels.

i.e. the continuing story of a self-aware woman who likes sex but loves her son and is trying to fit into situations she's outgrown

btw clem I'm reacting to the angst expressed at the beginning of this thread, started in 2003. I'm surprised that even in 2003 fans couldn't see that a novelty song about hot white cum was the means by which Liz Phair scored her biggest commercial coup.

oddly, i think what i find disappointing about every album after 'exile' is how confident and professional her singing sounds. what i like about 'exile' is how tuneless and weird she sounds on almost every track, like the almost drone-y tone she gets on 'flower.' i love those unexpected phrasings and random emphases: "and BOXED it up and buried it in the GROUND."

Hmm. She still has an uncertain relation to pitch up until 2005 to my ears.

I'll grab WCSE for the car tomorrow. When Scott and I did that Facebook thing, there was some interesting commentary on how severe the backlash against her was. (You just quoted one of my favourite lines from "Divorce Song"--that and "I guess I already am."

Give it another shot.

i repped for the 2003 album lots when it came out, but i can't really get into most of it anymore. i do like most of 'whip-smart.'

I was going to do ‘Funstyle,’ ‘Funnerstyle’ and 'Funnererstyle'

just... wow

I dunno, I've never known any artist ever that had more people go "I know exactly what she *should* be doing, and I will immediately stop her from doing what she *is* doing in favour of my vision" than her.

Fairly, unfairly, correctly or no, I have no idea, I only heard "Fuck and Run" by her...

I keep waiting for her to do the inevitable kids album. The press release and reviews would pretty much write themselves.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qg055XfRnzY

Ten years since the release of the eponymous album. Fabulous interview: http://noisey.vice.com/blog/the-other-liz-phair-anniversary-this-week

I remember my A&R guy was Ron Laffitte and he was like, “Well, what would you do differently?”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tp9PGzGroMc

Good interview! Got me to check that record out for the first time. Really baffling that so much fuss was made - it's not a dramatic shift away from whitechocolatespaceegg and despite some kind of wince-inducing production choices here and there, and a couple of plodding numbers that never find a shape ("Friend of Mine") the songwriting totally feels like vintage Liz.

"Why Can't I?" is surprisingly durable.

My favorite track from that album is Red Light Fever.

I interviewed her after this album came out and she told me she was just happy to hear her songs played at the gym.

actually, Funstyle is great.