REVIEWS:
Post your comments about Liz Phair
(reviewed by Kevin Baker)
It's rather ironic that my first Liz Phair review is of the LEAST Liz Phairish Liz Phair album. Before summer 2003, Liz Phair was pretty much known exclusively as the Queen of Indie Rock. Accordingly, next to no one knew who on GOD'S GREEN EARTH she was. But then, Liz sold out...or did she? "Selling out" is such a relative term. Did Liz Phair decide to make her music about 20 times more accessible by, ya know, singing in a pretty manner and crafting catchy melodies? OH YEAH. However, she didn't change much else. I've heard Exile In Guyville (stay tuned to see if a review of that one is in the cards...), and lyrically, not too much has changed. Liz is not shy AT ALL about her sexuality. She sure likes her some sweet lovin', and dangit, she gets what she likes very often. Practically EVERY song on here is about Liz's voracious sexual appetite.
It even starts on the cover. Just look at that...Liz Phair, blonde and beautiful with a heck of a body, straddling a guitar without a stitch of clothing on. From there, we enter a pop-rock world of the ol' in-and-out. The hit single, Why Can't I, oozes sex - it's all about two people cheating on their S.O.s together..."we haven't f*cked yet, but my head is spinning" and whatnot. What else? Liz declares her desire to bang a college student in Rock Me, then gets to explain why to her son why the man she's dating/screwing isn't his daddy in Little Digger. Of course, there's always Favorite, in which she compares her current boy toy to her favorite undies. And, as the crowning glory of all this sexual exuberance, one can't leave out HWC, which stands for "hot white cum." Yep, she takes an insanely upbeat and catchy melody and pairs it with the phrase "gimme your hot white cum" and that's the chorus.
Of course, these are just the most openly sexual songs on here. All the rest touch "it" on some level or another. Now, I'm not a guy who shies away from mentions of sex in music. I don't thrive on them either, but hey - it's a part of life. However, Lizzie goes WAY overboard. THIS ALBUM IS ABOUT SEX, AND THAT'S ABOUT IT. Of course, themes of female empowerment, post-feminist relationship dynamics, and the like crop up, but ultimately, it all boils down to the midnight creep. And, to be frank, it's a little off-putting. A song about sex is manageable if it's done tastefully; an entire album about sex gets very old with a minimum of delay. The music itself is catchy, but no more so than anyone else on the radio. My verdict? Someone needs to lay off the horny-dust and discover that the dynamics of life, and of music, should not revolve entirely around getting some action.
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