Could the new Liz Phair be any worse

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.

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.