So once again I’m late to the party, having just discovered this article a full year after it was originally published.

For those not familiar with Liz Phair, she burst onto the alternative music scene in ’93 with her first studio album Exile In Guyville.  That record garnered a huge amount of acclaim that Phair has spent the rest of her career trying to live up to.

Her followup album Whip-Smart went on to sell even more copies than Guyville, but all anyone seemed to want to talk about was her debut.  This sentiment persisted with the release of her third record Whitechocaolatespaceegg and shortly after that Phair disappeared for five years eventually reemerging on major label Capitol Records in 2003.

And that's when the bad thing happened.

There’s been a lot of speculation as to why Phair altered her routine and started working with teenie-bopper, hit-makers The Matrix on her self-titled album and the subsequent followup Somebody's Miracle.  A lot of people thought it was a grab for mainstream acceptance and the financial perks that go with having radio-friendly albums.  I think there may be something to this theory, but I don’t buy it as the primary reason that Phair changed gears.  You don’t write a song called WHC, which stands for White Hot Cum, with the intention of getting major commercial airplay.

I think Phair was tired of people expecting her to make another Guyville and angry that she couldn’t appease either the fans or the critics by doing her own thing.  I’ve always thought Whip-Smart and Spaceegg were both criminally underrated by many people, especially the latter of the two.  This is a subject that's near and dear to my heart and one I’ve discussed before in a less gentile manner.

To hear her now say that it was more pressure from the label than frustration with her musical identity or legacy actually makes me feel a lot better about it.  This situation has happened before with countless artists; bands like Radiohead who have a love/hate relationship with their early success, notably with their first hit single. It’s also the same excuse that scores of artists have used about their less than stellar material since the dawn of time, but honestly that doesn’t really matter to me.

As far as I’m concerned she can blame whoever she wants.  If it means that Phair will go back to making records of substance, albums like her first three, then I’m willing to forgive her just about anything.

Here’s hoping I get that chance.

-Quoth the Raven

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