June 24, 2003

Popmatters: another review of the new, apparently terrible, liz phair record:

..."The resulting album, Liz Phair, is a highly overproduced, shallow, soulless, confused, pop-by-numbers disaster that betrays everything the woman stood for a decade ago, and most heinously, betrays all her original fans. In contrast to her of her infamous, audacious 'flashing' cover photo for Exile in Guyvile, Phair's new album cover has her sitting, legs spread-eagled, a guitar placed suggestively between her legs, her hair stylishly tousled, looking like a cheesy Maxim photo shoot. It's an album by a woman who has completely lost touch with what made her music so great in the past; Ms. Phair has never been one to shy away from speaking her mind, and her new record is nothing more than a hearty 'fuck you' to everyone who bought her first two albums, as she tries to become the next Avril Lavigne. Only, she fails at that, too, in spectacular fashion."
...
"Liz Phair, on the other hand, has grown increasingly more shallow as the years have gone by, and has reached a career nadir with a new album that practically begs to be noticed, simultaneously trying to be controversial and radio-friendly without knowing which to settle for, and ends up being a colossal, muddled disaster. This album just could be her commercial breakthrough (stranger things have happened), but it's at the cost of what's left of her integrity. Five years ago, Phair sang, 'It's nice to be liked/But it's better by far to get paid.' If her longtime fans stop caring after hearing this putrid crap, we'll see if that's what Liz still feels."

Actually, if memory serves, the "its nice to be liked..." line, was, like most of liz's best stuff, originally released on the Girly Sound demos, and was rereleased circa 94/95 as a 7 inch single.

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