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indie-snob>+!#
s/t by liz phair
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5.6 S/T by Liz Phair In 1993, Exile in Guyville met Liz Phair with both fan and critical adoration, but since that time, Liz's indie cred has slowly subsided. Her playful, raunchy post-feminism lyrics were blended honest guitar work, not to mention a small bit of more experimental rock. Sure, Liz was stoned back then, and since that time has cleaned up (perhaps explaining how each album has gotten more and more pop-ful). Unfortunately, "cleaning up" applies to more than just her drug habits. Liz has cleaned up her image, her sound, but luckily, not her lyrics. The new self-titled album, her first to be released completely by Capitol (the others at least co-released by indie-giant Matador), is just about as far from the lo-fi sound that accompanied her debut. Songs produced (and written) by Avril producers, the Matrix, sound so over-produced and over-the-top "big-banded." The quality of some songs don't over-reach that of a Hillary Duff number playing during commercial breaks on Disney Channel. The problem is that Liz Phair is 36 but her audience is twenty-five years younger. Chances are that most girls aren't going to want to hear Liz sing "H.W.C." which most unfortunately stands for "Hot White Come." Lyrics like "All you do is fuck me every day and night" show that Liz hasn't lost her dirty mind, but every song produced by the Matrix is proof that Liz has also embraced this new pop essence. With all the parental advisory stickers plastered over the record, this makes Phair seem more of a walking contradiction. But the album isn't total garbage. Some numbers, the ones both written and especially produced by Liz herself can still have the same soft and sweet qualities that we saw from a Liz Phair long ago. Most notably, "Little Digger," a soft, sweet number about her son walking in on her and a man and "Firewalker" made big impressions on me, coming across as any older Liz Phair song would. Other tracks like "Love/Hate" still maintain a subtle tongue-in-cheek songwriting essence that all of us older Liz Phair fans loved so dearly. We must remember to accept Liz Phair as a pop album, perhaps a statement to the resignation of Liz Phair as a queen of the indie world she once reigned. We must accept hearing "Why Can't I?" playing next to an Avril song on our local pop stations, or perhaps even the newer Sheryl Crow and Jewel songs, living proof that once credited artists will turn to pop and disappear from the acceptable indie radar. Liz is now as much of an untold secret to the indie world as Pete Yorn is, who, ironically, plays guitar on a couple numbers. But, that's more than we can say for Liz, who barely plays guitar on her own songs these days. I've heard people say that they hope Liz Phair fails miserably on this album, Capitol drops her, she's forced to return to a nice little indie (er, Matador, anyone?) and makes something at least more along the lines of whitechocolatespaceegg. Goodbye, Liz. Grade: C- (just barely passes my expectations) *Note: Look for a concert review of Liz Phair after August 21st when I see her at the Metro. Also, I don't think this is an awful album considering everything, I'm just not pleased with the direction. Just the songs by the Matrix suck so hard and her own songs are still pretty good. |