The sidebar heading on Slate read “The Ongoing Lame-ification of Liz Phair,” which is pretty funny.
Her new album, Somebody’s Miracle is reviewed there. Douglas Wolk writes
For the last decade, Phair has been alternately trying to approximate what made Guyville so special and rebelling against it. Her 2003 effort, Liz Phair, was one of those attempts at rebellion. The result was a slick, airbrushed record that pandered to contemporary hit radio, played up Phair’s sexy bad-girl image, and dismissed virtually all of the psychological and musical complexity that made her songs and performances so entrancing in the first place.Her new album, Somebody’s Miracle (Capitol), is something of a retrenchment, one part taut songwriting and two parts radio-formula-retreading mush. The production that frames Phair’s inalienable gifts as a melodist is the kind of lavish, high-budget, post-Eagles rock that she’s gravitated toward for the last decade, and this time it mostly works.
Her debute album, Exile In Guyville came out 12 years ago, which is an eternity in today’s terms. The fact that people are still comparing her records (unfavorably) to her first release makes me wonder what fate awaits some of the new bands whose debut albums are praised so lavishly. Where will Arcade Fire be in 10 years? Wolf Parade? CYHSY? Just sayin’….
But of course, Liz Phair still looks good mostly topless (NSFW).
PREVIOUSLY: Liz Phair’s new album
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and yet, tickets to the irving plaza show aren’t sold out yet.
http://www.irvingplaza.com/calendar/
I LOVE Wolf Parade…saw them last night in Detroit and they were awesome…met the guys too and were really really cool…
“but of course Liz Phair still looks good mostly topless…”
Stereogum: proving, apparently, why Exile in Guyville is still relevant.
Stereogum: and/or making a joke about it, for people with a sense of humor
does ANYONE have Liz’s comandgetit ep that was available with purchase of her self-titled cd? i was never able to successfully download that stupid asf file and burn it onto a cd so i could listen to it more than a few times. it is the closest thing to Exile and is quite remarkable. i miss it…
To be fair, Whip-Smart is one my all-time favorite albums, and Bionic Eyes/Stars & Planets are her catchiest songs yet. Plus, she puts on a decent gig.
So she’s gotta be doing something right.
So I saw Liz @ Irving Plaza last night with my girlfriend…I have to say, she was pretty awesome. Even “HWC” sounded fun, although I’ll never live down the fact that I thought she was singing “give me your heartbreak girls”, instead, but I blame matt pond PA for hurting my ears.
I’ll unwind each of my four prized “Girlysound Demos” cassettes and ingest every centimeter of the tape if ANYONE is able to trackdown the whereabouts of Wolf Parade and Clap Your Hands Say Worst twelve years from now. Puhleeze.
i am so with you, grambo, yet i have to admit that i have not yet purchased the new phair disc. i heard the whole thing twice and thought, sadly, “i will probably never have to hear this again.” i could still listen to “mesmerizing” or “chopsticks” or “johnny feelgood” over and over, but somehow this new record seems like liz got an assignment to write something for sheryl crow’s soccer mom set…and she got a A.
I’m always amazed how quick people are to praise someone when they are new, then slam the hell out of them when they change. I just read two seperate reviews for the new Echo and the Bunnyman record. One slammed them for not changing with the times and the other slammed them for “a weak attempt to recapture what was once and will never be again”. Would we all really rather have artists who just keep recording the same things over and over?
I loved Dark Side of the Moon, don’t care for Momentary Lapse of Reason. It doesn’t mean Pink Floyd suddenly sucked, it means they changed and without change you die creatively. Of course thats just my opinion. I’m not the same guy I was 10 years ago either.
So if Liz wants to make a more “commercial” record, then more power to her. Girl’s gotta eat and make her house payments just like the rest of us.