Wednesday, July 14, 2010

THE FIRE YOU LIKE SO MUCH IN ME IS THE MARK OF SOMEONE ADAMANTLY FREE: Liz Phair explains to the WSJ why she and her record company have asked for separate rooms, although just just listening to the quasi-bhangra-rap "Bollywood" opening track to Funstyle may explain even more. As Jezebel's Hortense puts it:
I was one of those 90s teenagers who clung to "Exile In Guyville" like a life raft in high school, but the time has long passed since bashing Liz Phair for not sounding like the Liz Phair of yore was considered clever or fashionable or even remotely necessary, and so instead of lamenting the loss of "Explain It To Me" Liz, let's just focus on this Liz, and this song, which is, well, I don't know what the hell it is. What is this?! Is it a rap? Is it a dance song? Is it a skit? Is someone talking to her? Who is talking? What is happening here?!?
In other "you had a nice run in the early 1990s, but..." news, Nicolas Cage has a new movie out today. Surprise: it stinks!
Posted by Adam at 7:58 AM

13 comments:

  1. Ted9:34 AM

    Later Liz Phair isn't Exile in Guyville Liz Phair, but she's had some good singles that made my iPhone playlist.  The embedded link no longer plays "Bollywood," but instead now plays "And He Slayed Her," which isn't half-bad. 

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  2. lauri10:26 AM

    i couldn't agree with hortense more.  i loved exile in guyville (and still play it fairly regularly) but now i cringe every time i hear she has a new album out because it's all been awful for so long.  i'm beginning to wonder how she ever made exile in guyville...

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  3. isaac_spaceman11:18 AM

    Ask Brad Wood. 

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  4. Adam11:25 AM

    I think whitechocolatespaceegg is a perfectly good album.  Whip-smart has its moments.  And "Why Can't I?" is peppy but below what we expected of her.  This?  Ugh.

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  5. Joseph J. Finn12:33 PM

    In better movie recommendations, I finally caught up with Paranormal Activity last night and it's one of those movie's that doesn't reinvent the wheel but certainly does what it does very well.

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  6. Adam C.12:52 PM

    Of course, the inevitable cash-in sequel is on the way, so we'll see if it's franchisable soon enough.  But yes, PA is VERY effective at what it sets out to do.

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  7. bella wilfer2:14 PM

    Saw Sorcerer's Apprentice earlier this week.  It's not as bad as the reviews make it sound, but it's certainly not GOOD.  That said, I think by "not so bad" I was comparing it to the film I saw before that, Predators, which........there are no words.

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  8. isaac_spaceman2:54 PM

    If Exile is a 9 or a 10, Whipsmart (which I thought was underrated initially) is about an 8.  Whitechocolatespaceegg is a huge drop-off, maybe a 3 or a 4. 

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  9. Paul Tabachneck2:59 PM

    When I followed the link, I heard a completely different track, "And Then He Slayed Her," which is now stuck in my head.  It's good Phair, really, it is!

    I try not to think of her "ups" and "downs" so much as to view her career as a series of experiments.  The reason Exile In Guyville was so amazing was that it was bold -- there was absolutely no fear, and it was full of gritty, dirty, demo-style moments.  It's a classic demo-cum-album, but I have always felt like the expectation it raised was that she was going to keep working that angle.  Once you have a budget and a label that wants fresher sounds, you have to expand your scope, and I feel like no matter what she's done, you can always hear that wry sensibility back there -- there's always more on the table than you can hear outright.

    I loved "Why Can't I."

    But yeah, "Sorcerer's" seemed destined to suck.

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  10. Adam3:11 PM

    I'd go 10, 6, 8.  Polyester Bride, Uncle Alvarez, Perfect World, Shitloads of Money ... all solid songs.

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  11. Jenn.5:01 PM

    I actually quite liked whitechocolatespaceegg. 

    When I saw the trailer for the Sorcerer's Apprentice, I initially thought it was a joke.

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  12. isaac_spaceman5:08 PM

    Whitechocolatespaceegg to me seemed like someone who didn't really get it trying to write "Liz Phair Songs."  Songs didn't build right any more; a lot of the chord changes weren't interestingly different -- they were just different for the sake of being different.  She lost the confessional, intimate feeling of the first album and the swagger of the second.  I hated Polyester Bride (utterly conventional song), disliked Uncle Alvarez (boring), thought Shitloads of Money meandered too much round a nice central idea, and I don't even remember Perfect World. 

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  13. Stevie12:01 AM

    I just pretend that Liz Phair died in 1998.

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