I looked cautiously at my Liz Phair CDs, even the bootlegged
\nFuck and Run<\/i> live CD as I unwrapped the cellophane of her
\nlatest album. I know that by the end of this album, I would not be
\nable to listen to these CDs in the same way again. “God, let’s get
\nthis over with,” I thought to myself as I put
\nLiz Phair<\/i> in the CD player. Add one more statement I never
\nwould have imagined myself uttering: “get this over with” before
\nlistening to a Liz Phair CD.<\/p>\n
Once a prolific indie stateswoman, Liz Phair has spent the last
\nyear or two stuck in the Matrix – limited, trapped and surrounded
\nby machines.
\nLiz Phair<\/i> is not an abomination, it’s more of a sad fact of
\nlife facing female musicians. It seems that in the mid-30s\/40 being
\nthe cutoff, a popular female artist has two avenues to face: keep
\ndoing what you’re doing and risk losing record sales, or go pure
\npop and try to compete with artists 20 years their junior (meaning
\nspend more time worrying about image and let the ‘in’ producers
\nworry about making the album sound right). Last year Sheryl Crow
\nmade this decision with
\nC’Mon, C’Mon<\/i>. Now, Phair seems to have chosen a similar path
\nwith her self-titled album.<\/p>\n
It shouldn’t have come as a shock: on the last track of
\nwhitechocolatespaceegg<\/i>, her last album, she wished upon
\nherself and her friends “shitloads of money.” In hope of living up
\nto that statement, Phair hired The Matrix recording team (the same
\nteam that made Avril Lavigne the pop sensation that she is). To
\nsave some indie-cred, she hired Michael Penn to produce a few
\ntracks. But it’s too late, since almost every aspect of
\nLiz Phair<\/i> seems soulless and artificially crafted.<\/p>\n
Almost every annoying clich\u00e9 in today’s popular music can
\nbe heard in
\nLiz Phair<\/i>; right down to the annoying robot echo effect of
\n“Why Can’t I?” Not only did the producers take control of the
\nmusic, Phair had songwriting contributors for about half of her
\nalbum. For five years worth of life experience (including divorce
\nand raising a child), it seems that the most quoted lyric of
\nLiz Phair<\/i> will sadly be, “I want to play X-Box on your
\nfloor” in the cloying “Rock Me.” Even a more desperate attempt,
\nmost of the songs Phair shares songwriting credits with come at the
\nfirst half of the album, opting to keep her solo songwriting songs
\nnear the back of the album.<\/p>\n
The myth is that her fans were expecting
\nExile in Guyville<\/i> II. That cannot be further from the truth.
\nMost fans who grew into adulthood with
\nExile<\/i> know that artists cannot recreate albums of that
\nmagnitude. In truth, her other albums,
\nWhip-Smart<\/i> and
\nwhitechocolatespaceegg<\/i> were great extensions of her
\nabilities. The only thing that was lacking was the media coverage
\nof those albums.<\/p>\n
Most fans are willing to give their favorite artists slack for
\ntaking artistic detours. Tori Amos, PJ Harvey, Lucinda Williams and
\nBjork have each released an album or two that have thrown off their
\nloyalists, but most are willing to go along for the ride because
\nmost of their fans know that what’s coming from the artist is a
\nsincere statement of truth: They know that what they’re hearing is
\ncoming from the artist’s heart (as hopelessly romantic as that
\nstatement is). It’s no surprise that “Little Digger,” one of the
\nsongs that Liz Phair exclusively penned, is also the most effective
\nsong on the album. The lyrics are reminiscent of her earlier, far
\nmore devastating, autobiographical statements. Liz does a great job
\nof painting the scene: her young son meets her boyfriend who is not
\nhis father. As her son meticulously puts his toy trucks on the bed
\nnext to her boyfriend, Phair thinks: “I’ve done the damage, the
\ndamage is done\/I pray to god that I’m the damaged one.” It’s those
\nhonest statements that are lacking in Liz Phair.<\/p>\n
Which brings us to another myth: fans expect Liz Phair to shock
\nthem with dirty lyrics. On the surface, it would stand to reason,
\nsince “Flower” and “Fuck and Run” are two of her most-quoted songs.
\nBut it was the emotional honesty, not the vulgarity that leaves an
\nimpact with the listener. Her latest song to try to shock an
\never-increasing hard to shock audience is “H.W.C.” The song is a
\npoppy ode to “Hot White Come.” It’s not shocking that she’s asking
\nfor “H.W.C” at the age of 36. Hell, Lucinda Williams and Patti
\nSmith are still sexy way into their 50s. It’s the sense of
\ndesperation that bogs down the entire album.<\/p>\n
Liz Phair knew she would alienate her fan base by trying to make
\na “summer album.” But the sad thing is that none of the songs are
\neven that memorable or catchy. She has stated that she had no
\nqualms about making an album to pay the bills (in interviews, she
\nalluded that
\nLiz Phair<\/i> will have to go platinum to at least break even).
\nHowever, she has the odds stacked against her: most of the general
\nradio audience that she is aiming for has never heard of her. In
\nmost cases, that would cause me to root for her, but with the
\nexception of “Little Digger” and “Friend of Mine,” there’s not much
\nto root for.<\/p>\n
Ironically,
\nExile in Guyville<\/i>, the album that she has tried to lock away
\nin this album, will likely continue to bring in money for Liz
\nPhair. After this album makes a brief splash in the
\nadult-contemporary market, it will glide off the charts. However,
\nlike Jeff Buckley’s
\nGrace<\/i> and PJ Harvey’s
\nTo Bring You My Love,<\/i> there will always be about 30,000
\ncollege students (sullen art majors, confused gay boys and indie
\nrock DJs) a year that will add these staples to their music
\ncollection. It can be a safe assessment that Liz Phair will be able
\nto feed her son and keep a roof over her head. You don’t need to
\nguilt yourself into buying her latest album. However, most die-hard
\nLiz Phair fans will eventually pick this album up out of curiosity.
\nThe question now is: How many fans will welcome her back after this
\nfailed flirtation at superstardom?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":26416,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5694],"rating":[11205],"class_list":["post-37648","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-liz-phair","rating-rating-d-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37648"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37648\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37648"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37648"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}