Liz Phair

Liz Phair’s deeply clever and often brutally candid songs have been commanding ears and raising eyebrows ever since she started writing them, and her new self-titled fourth album is perhaps the strongest link yet in an incomparable musical chain.

After her homemade “Girlysound” tapes quickly made the rounds among Chicago’s indie tastemakers in the early 90s, she followed up with what is considered one of the most accomplished debut albums for any artist in any genre, 1993’s Exile in Guyville. Ambitiously patterned after the Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main Street, the album contained raw, unblinking songs like “Fuck and Run,” sharply provocative lyrics claiming her as “your blowjob queen,” and sold over 200,000 copies – a major feat for a small independent release.

Following Guyville, Phair released two other highly-acclaimed albums, 1994’s gold-certified Whip Smart (featuring modern rock radio hit “Supernova”), and 1998’s deeply confessional whitechocolatespaceegg. She also toured with the Lilith Fair, got married, gave birth to a son, and got divorced.

Released almost exactly ten years after Guyville made waves, Liz Phair is a testament to her continuing maturity as a composer and performer, but also harkens back to some of her most fearless songwriting about carnal knowledge (and ignorance). Alongside point-blank songs about love, loss and longing, the album contains a song called “H.W.C.” (an acronym for “hot white come,” as the chorus “Give me your hot white come” makes abundantly clear).

But while Guyville featured endearingly shambling indie rock recorded in stripped-down fashion, Liz Phair rocks with a newfound authority and a startlingly BIG sound. Produced variously by the Matrix, Michael Penn, R. Walt Vincent, and Phair herself, Liz Phair puts forth a sonic intensity that only adds to the album’s many facets.

Her name alone as the album’s title suggests Phair at her most naked and direct. And her powerful brand of first-person narratives -- variously naughty, wistful, pointed, sexual, and humorous, often at the same time – are very much in evidence.

While album opener “Extraordinary” has Phair “licking her lips” for a “primitive fix,” the chorus -- “I am just your ordinary, average, everyday, sane/psycho super-goddess” knowingly tweaks her own sultry image, later taunting “I still take out the trash, is that too normal for you?”

Indeed, Phair gleefully toys with her self-image and her public image throughout. “Take A Look” makes direct self-reference to her incontestable starpower -- “You wanna take a look? Take a look!” she demands. But in “Rock Me” she describes an affair with a nine-years-younger, penniless, X-Box playing, roommate-having young guy who doesn’t “even know who Liz Phair is.”

As always, Phair never shies away from chronicling relationships at their most complicated. “Why Can’t I,” explores the forbidden thrill of infidelity (“Holding hands with you when we’re out at night/got a girlfriend, but you say it isn’t right /and I’ve got someone waiting, too”), and is peppered with her uniquely salacious wordplay (“We’re already wet and we’re gonna go swimming,” “We’re at the beginning/We haven’t fucked yet but my head’s spinning”).

“Little Digger” unflinchingly portrays a child seeing his mother with a man other than his father, while “Good Love Never Dies,” “Friend of Mine,” and “Firewalker” detail the myriad tensions of failed relationships. It may all be brimming with attitude, but this is pop music at its most honest.

Musically, Liz Phair is her most confident and varied effort to date: there’s a virtual smorgasbord of indelible hooks but they’re couched in everything from turned-to-eleven crunch chords to swirling psychedelia to garage stomp to ephemeral synths to bare naked acoustics.

The mix is further diversified by contributions from guests like Dr. Dre bassist (and co-writer/producer of 50 Cent’s smash “In Da Club”) Mike Elizondo, session drummer Matt Chamberlain, Prince and the Revolution/Wendy and Lisa bassist Wendy Melvoin, and Pete Yorn (who adds drums and guitar to “H.W.C.”).

Liz Phair is the latest chapter in one of rock’s most indelible autobiographies, almost always going straight for the heart (and the loins) but just as often hitting squarely in the gut. And without apology.

Growing out of the American underground of the late '80s, Liz Phair fused lo-fi indie rock production techniques and styles with the sensibility and structure of classic singer/songwriters. Exile in Guyville, Phair's debut album, was enthusiastically praised upon its 1993 release and spawned a rash of imitators, particularly American female singer/songwriters, over the following years. For her part, Phair wasn't able to break into the mainstream, even with the support of the press and MTV. Whip-Smart, her second album, was heavily promoted upon its 1994 release, yet despite its relatively strong chart positions, it was viewed as a disappointment and Phair's momentum declined steadily during the mid-'90s, as she took several years to record her third album.

Phair (born April 17, 1967) was born in New Haven, CT, and adopted by wealthy parents, who raised her in the Chicago suburb Winnetka. After high school, she studied art at Oberlin College in Ohio. At Oberlin, she became fascinated with underground indie rock and eventually became friends with guitarist Chris Brokaw, who later joined Come. Following their college graduation, Phair and Brokaw moved to San Francisco, where she tried to become an artist.

Eventually, Brokaw moved out east and Phair moved back to Chicago, where she began writing songs. Soon, she began releasing homemade tapes of these songs under the name Girlysound. While she supported herself by selling her charcoal drawings on the streets of Wicker Park, she was becoming involved in various portions of the Chicago alternative music scene; in particular, she became friends with Urge Overkill, a drummer named Brad Wood, and John Henderson, the head of the Chicago-based indie label Feel Good All Over. Henderson and Phair tried to re-record some of the Girlysound tapes with Wood, yet the pair had a falling out during the sessions, leaving Wood as Phair's only collaborator. Brokaw, who had by then joined Come, was still receiving Girlysound tapes and he gave a copy to Gerard Cosley, the head of Come's record label, Matador. By the summer of 1992, Matador had signed Phair and she began recording her debut album in earnest.

Adapting its title from an Urge Overkill song, Exile in Guyville, her debut album, was released to strong reviews in the summer of 1993. Many articles focused on Phair's claim that the double album was structured as a response to the Rolling Stones' classic Exile on Main St. Over the course of the year, the record slowly built a dedicated following in America, both among critics and alternative rock fans. At the end of the year, it topped many Best of the Year critics polls, including The Village Voice and Spin. With all the attention focused on Phair, many indie rock figures -- particularly members of the Chicago noise rock scene such as Steve Albini -- were developing a resentment toward her and launching an attack at the singer and the heavy media attention Exile in Guyville received. The criticism couldn't halt the progress of Phair and Exile, and in early 1994 she launched her first tour, which was plagued by her stage fright. Around the same time, MTV began airing "Never Said" and, as a result of all the hype, the album briefly appeared in the charts in February. By the spring of 1994 it had sold over 200,000 copies -- a remarkable number for an independent release.

By that time, Phair had begun work on her follow-up record. Matador had signed a distribution deal with Atlantic Records in 1994, and her second album was going to be one of the first to be heavily promoted by the alliance. Indeed, Whip-Smart was released to a whirlwind of media attention -- including Phair, dressed only in negligee, on the cover of Rolling Stone -- and debuted at number 27 upon its fall 1994 release. "Supernova," the first single from the album, received heavy airplay on MTV and alternative rock radio, becoming a Top Ten modern rock hit. However, Whip-Smart received mediocre reviews and never developed into the hit that it was expected to be. Phair didn't tour to support the album and was slow to deliver a second single. By the time the title track was released as a single in the spring of 1995, the album had disappeared from the charts.

Phair quietly retreated from the spotlight during 1995, marrying Jim Staskausas, a Chicago-based film editor who had previously worked on Phair's videos. Later in the summer of 1995, she released the Juvenilia EP, which was essentially the "Jealousy" single amplified with the first official release of Girlysound material. During the summer of 1996, she released "Rocket Boy," a single pulled from the Stealing Beauty soundtrack that received little attention. For much of 1996, Phair worked on her third album with producer Scott Litt, yet by the fall, she decided to scrap the sessions, unsatisfied with their sound. Toward the end of 1996, Staskausas and Phair announced she was several months pregnant. On December 21, 1996, Phair gave birth to her first child, James Nicholas Staskausas. Her long-delayed, much-anticipated third LP, whitechocolatespaceegg, finally appeared in mid-1998. Five years later, Phair returned with a self-titled effort. Liz Phair, which appeared in June 2003, found singer/songwriter Michael Penn and the Matrix in the production seat as well as Phair herself. Jimmy Chamberlin, Wendy Melvoin, and Pete Yorn also contributed to Phair's newly slick sound. When Liz Phair finally appeared in June 2003, it was panned by purist rock critics and militant Liz nerds who felt she'd sold them out with the record's pop star sensibilities. But Phair stood up for her work in typcally brash fashion - sometimes it seemed like she even invited the fan boy ridicule - and the album was a decent hit for her behind its single "Why Can't I", peaking at #27 on the Billboard 200. The quieter Somebody's Miracle appeared in fall 2005. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide