Slate's Douglas Wolk reviews Liz Phair's newest record, "Somebody's Miracle," and it does a pretty good job of capturing some issues I've had with her music over the past few years.
First of all, I liked her last album, "Liz Phair", but I didn't lurve it. It was, very obviously, her attempt at a homogonized, mainstream, radio-playable, Top 40 fare while still maintaining her bad girl image. Sometimes it worked, such as songs like "Rock Me" (which is a good example of how a mundane pop song can become interesting once a good producer gets done with it. I saw her perform it live, and the only thing rockin' about it was the fact that, regardless of how watered down her lyrics are, she is just damned sexy). Sometimes it didn't, in the case of "H.W.C." (Which stands for a temperate, clear male fluid which has become her "favorite beauty routine").
From the Slate review:
It sometimes seems that Liz Phair has spent half her career running away from her strengths as an artist. Her first album, 1993's Exile in Guyville, was a near-perfect debut, showcasing a songwriter with a thoroughly original style and scathing insights into relationships. It's also cast a shadow over everything she's done since. For the last decade, Phair has been alternately trying to approximate what made Guyville so special and rebelling against it.
That's always been my issue with her. There is something intensely likeable about all of her music, but "Exile in Guyville" and, though most people disagree with me, "Whip-Smart" are two pretty perfect singer-songwriter's albums for the tragically hip. "Whip-Smart" is maligned, but it's tiny diddies are basically tone-poems which all unite around one theme of someone who has taken a risk, struck out on their own, is finally seeing the fruits of those efforts, but still longs for comfort and stability that "home" used to represent.
I haven't heard the new album yet, and she made me enough of a fan over the years that I'll buy it and listen to it, but I'm past the point where I expect anything authentic or inventive from her. Liz Phair's career path is now more about her image and less about the unique insight she provided in her early albums.
As I said on my blog (in the comments section) today, I've liked all of Liz Phair's albums. I like that they're all different, and each is good in its own way. I don't think I can pick a favorite.
I'm looking forward to getting the new album.
Posted by: Amber | October 18, 2005 at 01:45 PM