TS: Juvenilia VERSUS Whip-Smart VERSUS whitechocolatespaceegg (Or, Liz Phair, minus the baggage)

Sick lead gtr on "Russian Girl," starting around 45:30 in the above clip... wonder who played it(?)

Sounds a little like Jack White

Oh, rocket boi- where are you gonna land?

Whip-Smart was my first Liz record, and for that it’ll always rank a little higher than the other studio albums.

"Support System," "Go West," and "Jealousy" are three of her all-time best songs... it's frustrating how much of a mixed bag the rest of Whip-Smart is.

I would NOT include "Support System" in that list, I would include "Alice Springs", "Shane" and the title track

but yeah, it's a bit uneven overall

At this point, it's the album of hers that i listen to the most, and it's grown on me tons over the years. Jealousy, Nashville, May Queen, Whip-Smart and Go West are all top-tier Phair for me! I'm always down for X-Ray Man and sometimes for Supernova also. I guess I sort of buy "uneven" but for me it's the sort of loopier slow burn-things that sometimes grab me and sometimes I'm ready to skip.

Whip-Smart was the first album of hers I heard (though I was aware of Guyville having happened), and I really really lived with it for a while before getting Guyville. So it was weird (to me) how let down folks seemed by Whip-Smart though now, of course, I get it.

Whip-Smart is messy as hell but still a special listen.