Liz Phair--teen pop star at 36?

any of you former Phair fans?
Exile in Guyville, and great album, that sold an amazing number
of copies (over 250,000), considering it was on an indie label.
Considered the beginning of grrrl rock and an inspiration to some good and bad female songsters (Ani Di Franco, Alanis Morrisette).

well, she's got a new album out now, deciding at age 36 to become a teen pop star, worked with an (in)famous songwriting team, and came up with perhaps the lamest sell-out attempt imaginable.

because I sometime write for and often read rock magazines, I've been following the articles on her of late. Unbelievable unanimity! Everyone hates the record, reviles her pathetic grab for cash and fame, and makes no bones about it. i can't remember seeing a formerly beloved rock musician this trashed (well, Bowie in the 80's maybe).

The difference is, no matter how much you hated Tin Machine or Let's Dance, Bowie's always been marching to his own drummer. You may not like every twist and turn of his career, but I don't think any move he's made has ever been calculated to sell out.

[shrugs]

didn't even know about this.
Exile in Guyville is still amazing.

Fuck and Run

[tippy]

>>Bowie's always been marching to his own drummer.<<

true true.

Maybe Liz Phair is 36 and needs money? How human.

[Chris D]

Still haven't heard her new music, but I did read an interview with Phair, in which she said she knew she'd be labeled a sell-out.
She said that didn't matter to her, that she loves the radio, wanted to be on it and couldn't get over the number of hooks in Avril Lavigne's "Complicated," so she hooked up with her producers. (As well as Michael Penn.)
She may well be incredibly wrong-headed in this decision, but in its way it's very brave. She knows she's in for a ton of criticism but says she always wanted to make real pop songs but didn't know how.
I do know that I really liked "whitechocolatespaceegg," which was a quite emotionally nuanced record with lots of hooks of its own.

[HenryMc]

I like Liz Phair....I still play Exile in Guyville occasionally, whitechololatespaceegg and whip smart less so. I haven't heard the 'new' liz so i can't comment but what I was going to say here is how much critics annoy me.

So she wants to sell some cds....geees her new record will stand or fall on its quality but having read some of the reviews some of these critics have reacted like spurned lovers.

What I've found about critics is generally they don't like surprises: despite presenting themselves as hip, happening, now kinda guys (reality: mostly male spotty dorks who never learned an instrument) they like to pigeonhole AND don't want to really buck the trends (rash generalisation I know but look at the hype recently over .....the Strokes......The Hives.........the White Stripes.........The Vines) where, even in the English qualities (Mojo, Q) there's been a rush to 'back' these bands.

AND when I say they don't like change, well I can recall many a review where the reviewer didnt like the change of direction/change of pace the artist presented and dissed the album (any Byrds album after 1967!)

Back to Liz .....I'll still play Exile in Guyville no matter what doggydoo she puts out next ...it's a classic..

i can't see any bravery in this decision at all.
i think it is, as the NY Times writer wrote, an act of
career suicide. I've heard the new record and it's abysmal.
who does she she think her audience will be?
this record makes Cheryl Crow seem like one of the greats.
it's too bad, because
Phair is a woman who made serious and unique music (which she now seems to dismiss with comments like those Chris D. quoted) and in her 3 previous records, had a sales total of more than half
a million, so she was not starving, (and those gap ads she did
must have paid her a few bucks).
it's not an attmept to push herself somewhere else, it's a calculated attempt to get famous and make money. not exactly unusual, but she should have tried that 13 years ago when she recorded her first album. You know why she didn't? Because she had something to say then, and had her own way of saying it. Now she wants to be a Spice Girl. That's not brave, that's sad.

[Gary Sisco]

Too bad she didn't show her nipple again on the cover. I'm sick of belly-buttons already. She could have started a whole new trend.

Showbiz and nothin' more.

She ain't the blowjob queen no more, I guess....

[Jazzooo]

Maybe she never was the blowjob queen. Why do we think that the other image was real and this one is phony?

Anyone see her on Leno last night?

[Gary Sisco]

Geez, I can't imagine why. Maybe because there's jillions of bux to be made on near talentless nubiles?

But my real point was the fashion statement. Nipples are preferable, at this point, the navels. Navels are way overdone.

You have a point about "image," though, Doug. Seems like that's all there is in the pop world today is "images." Politics, too. Nothing's real. Everything's show biz.

I always wondered what "alternative" rock meant, anyway. Alternative to what?

[Rob C]

Very disappointing to see so much bad press for this record, as I've been a fan for a long time, too.

I haven't heard the new one, so I don't know HOW bad it is; but I didn't like Whip-Smart all that much, yet whitechocolatespaceegg was quite good, so maybe she's an every-other-record type of artist.

[shrugs]

Originally posted by Jazzooo
Maybe she never was the blowjob queen.

You heard Exile, right?

[frankpop1]

"I don't think any move he's made has ever been calculated to sell out."

i cant believe that anyone who loved or hated bowie would suggest that he ever did a thing that wasnt calculated to at least sell. i mean to me -- i consider bowie the epitome of commercialization, sell out, or however u put it.

as for liz, 'exile' was cool, but i suggest that u can do better.

go buy

amy rigby 'diary of a modhousewife' or amy's other two recordings.






the rock world can be so unforgiving. and what's so 'sad' about becoming a spice girl? hey, man, it's just rocknroll. it's just supposed to be fun.