The Phoenix Network:
 
 
About  |  Advertise
Adult  |  Moonsigns  |  Band Guide  |  Blogs  |  In Pictures
 
CD Reviews  |  Classical  |  Live Reviews  |  Music Features

Liz Phair

Exile In Guyville – 15th Anniversary Reissue | ATO
By MEGAN V. BELL  |  July 8, 2008
4.0 4.0 Stars
lizphairinside.jpg
In Liz Phair’s self-made (and often coy) documentary accompanying this re-release of Exile in Guyville, she mentions that four years ago she tried listening to what many consider her magnum opus, started sobbing, and turned it off. “I wasn’t happy; I was poor, pissed off, and took advantage of people.” If Phair was so distraught by the album and has moved on to bigger and . . . let’s just call them different things, why re-release it? By the time I got Guyville, it was too late: Phair had already come out with whitechocolatespaceegg, and her æsthetic was on its way to hardening into a shiny marketing gimmick aimed at angsty mall teens. But 15 years later, her sexual candor remains more refreshing than her petulant studio-buffed paeans to milkshakes, stolen boyfriends, self-inflicted starvation, and spray tans. Fluke or not, Guyville still speaks to me in a way that no other artist in my generation has. I’ve cried to some songs, worked out to others, put others on party playlists, sat plaintively in my car to still more. And maybe that’s why Phair can’t handle it now, but also why it’s still important: it’s an unflinching fuck-all look at the highs and lows of being young, of living with lust but hoping for love — an album of torment, turmoil, stupid choices, and futility.
Related: Photos: Liz Phair, Exile in Boston (2008), Onward, Upward, Awkward, The shores of cool, More more >
  Topics: CD Reviews , Liz Phair, Liz Phair
  • Share:
  • Share this entry with Facebook
  • Share this entry with Digg
  • Share this entry with Delicious
  • RSS feed
  • Email this article to a friend
  • Print this article
Comments

[ 11/28 ]   Seth Shomes Band  @ Wolf Den @ Mohegan Sun
[ 11/28 ]   Noche De Estrellas  @ Mohegan Sun Arena
[ 11/28 ]   Hot Tuna  @ Calvin Theatre
[ 11/28 ]   McAlister Drive + Whitetree + Cadrin  @ Center for Arts In Natick
[ 11/28 ]   Aventura  @ Agganis Arena
ARTICLES BY MEGAN V. BELL
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT  |  February 18, 2009
    "Happy Valentine's Day. That was a saint, right? St. Valentine?" mumbled Lewis & Clarke's (wasted?) frontman/sonic adventurer, Lou Rogai.
  •   CHRISTMAS ON MARS  |  October 28, 2008
    Stylized after the sci-fi B-movies of yore, the film recycles Atomic Age angst: a group living in a space station on Mars have run out of spare parts, and it seems that everyone’s doomed.  
  •   ADORING PUBLIC  |  October 24, 2008
    If the goal was to bring to life for a night the strange beast that is cable access, they nailed it.  
  •   FOR THE DOGS  |  July 31, 2008
    In June, seven greyhounds suffered broken legs within a six-day period at Massachusetts’s two racetracks.
  •   TAPES FOR THE TAKING  |  July 16, 2008
    Want to make your own compilation of overlooked ’60s female soul singers? Go for it.

 See all articles by: MEGAN V. BELL

MOST POPULAR
RSS Feed of for the most popular articles
 Most Viewed   Most Emailed 



  |  Sign In  |  Register
 
thePhoenix.com:
Phoenix Media/Communications Group:
TODAY'S FEATURED ADVERTISERS
Copyright © 2009 The Phoenix Media/Communications Group