What happened to Liz Phair?
Chris | June 24, 2008 | 11:47 amAn ex-co-worker and aspiring writer friend of mine, Chelsea Lin, stated this morning on her Facebook status that:
Liz Phair will make your eardrums bleed. Is ‘eardrums’ one word or two?
Which of course provoked me into the following exchange:
Me: Liz Phair topped out with “Exile in Guyville”… but what do I know? I was only there when the album (black, vinyl, lots of little lines – hole in the middle) was released.
You should listen to a little Polly Jane Harvey or Cat Power.
And get off my lawn you damn kids!
Chelsea: so she was performing only “exile in guyville” last night at the fillmore (i was covering it for spin.com) and i was not impressed… sacrilege, i know.
Me: “Not impressed”
Bah. Your prematurely jaded opinion is tiresome.
Next thing you’ll deny that the 80’s were, without a doubt, the crowning decade of human existence and the pinnacle of cultural and societal achievement.
And so Court and I got to talking; what exactly DID happen to Liz Phair?
“Guyville” was brilliant. Where did that brilliance go and why?
Court opines:
I don’t think (Chris) is talking about “exile in guyville” as being her best material, it’s more along the line of, Liz Phair was at her best at the time she wrote the album and her overall presences at that time. When that album debuted in 93′ she was willing to fully embrace her sound. I would say her second album, Whip-smart she maintained a similar sound but the influence from her Matador label-mates was far to obvious. With the move to Capital Records and her decent into commercial music success, the new glamorized shiny Liz’s sound comes off as vapid and indistinct. Now while she may, as you say make your eardrums bleed, it’s not because of raw passion or even a desire to perform… more likely its a production assistant turning a mic on to an obligatory 11. In short Liz Phair is dead. Lets hope for a resurgence of music not first filtered the digitized, then synthesized into catchy tunes for automobile, energy drink or tampon advertisements.
Brutal. I love it.
