Liz Phair new album reviews? (1 Viewer)

[MikeDeVincenzo]

Liz Phair appears to be committing the same kind of mainstream-lovin', career suicide that David Bowie engaged in during the '80s....

 

[MichaelTa]

I am going to see Liz this coming Monday in Salt Lake City at a small club and it ought to be a rocking good time.

 

[Patrick Larkin]

check out the cover of the new cd and tell me thats not selling out. :rolleyes

 

[Carlo_M]

That's not selling out.

She had a very provocative (although you could call it "artsy" I guess) cover for Exit in Guyville (in fact showed a bit o' nip).

 

[Leroy]

Oh no...someone wants to be successful and make money...gotta be a sellout!

I really like the new CD (I happen to like all her work and judge each on it's own merit). Most can't seem to get past the fact that The Matrix produced some of the songs. Heck some reviews even state that she didn't write any of the music. Last time I check out of 14 songs she has solo writng credits on 9 of 'em (don't have theCD in front of me), throw in the songs on the downloadable Comandgetit EP and it's more than that. Funny thing is that most reviews seem to just be attacking her and her life rather than actually reviewing the music. Get over it, Exile was released 10 years ago. Anyone here who can say nothing has changed about them over 10 years isn't being honest with themselves.

If you listen to the words it's certainly Liz in there, just a new sound. It's just so bizarre that people can't accept that musical artists change just as much as we out in the real world do. It's a catch 22, stay the same, fans get tired of you and dump on you, change and fans are shocked and dump on you.

 

[Matt Birchall]

Here are the writing credits:

• "Extraordinary" (Lauren Christy, Scott Spock, Graham Edwards, Liz Phair)
• "Red Light Fever" (Phair, Gary Clark)
• "Why Can't I?" (Christy, Spock, Edwards, Phair)
• "It's Sweet" (Phair)
• "Rock Me" (Christy, Spock, Edwards, Phair)
• "Take a Look" (Phair)
• "Little Digger" (Phair)
• "Firewalker" (Phair)
• "Favorite" (Christy, Spock, Edwards, Phair)
• "Love/Hate" (Phair)
• "H.W.C." (Phair)
• "My Bionic Eyes" (Phair)
• "Friend of Mine" (Phair)
• "Good Love Never Dies" (Phair)

So, four Matrix songs, nine Phair songs, plus one with Gary Clark.

I bought the album, listened to it several times over the first few days, and haven't gone back to it since. There are a couple of songs I like, and I feel that in and of itself, it isn't a horrible record, but when you compare it to Guyville, that's where the problem is. Guyville has proven to be a fluke. Sad, really.

 

[MikeDeVincenzo]

When a songwriting team is writing four songs on your new album for you, I'm sorry, that's not artistic change, its artistic suicide

 

[Grant B]

When a songwriting team is writing four songs on your new album for you, I'm sorry, that's not artistic change, its artistic suicide

I guess all the Motown Bands(Supremes-Martha & the Vandells Temptations etc) who recorded Holland Dozier Holland songs killed themselves pretty bad

Whip Smart is pretty great too. I think one problem she has; she is not in a band. Most Artists change Band names even if it is basically them & a support band.
When you are 20 and write a song like the ones on 'Exile' you are cuttting edge, do it at 35 and people call you Mrs Robinson

 

[Patrick Larkin]

She had a very provocative (although you could call it "artsy" I guess) cover for Exit in Guyville (in fact showed a bit o' nip).

Big difference between the Guyville cover and the "naked behind the guitar" shot. I'd prefer to see Phair continue on with the maturing aspects of whitechocolagespaceegg myself. From everything I've read, she just wants the big money to live the big lifestyle.

 

[MikeDeVincenzo]

Grant B

Holland Dozier, and the Matrix, for that matter, deserve much more of the spotlight and credit than their respective clients do.

For example, if I liked the song "Extrodinary" on Liz Phair's new album, wouldn't it be more proper to give credit to its creators rather than the person who merely performs it?

When we watch an orchestra playing a piece by Mozart, who is more worthy of our praise: the orchestra, or the person who actually created what we are listening to? I think the orchestra can receive credit for the high skill and technical merit of their performance, but the lionshare of praise (or lack thereof) should be reserved for the creator or creators of the music.

But, I'm sure the Matrix is content to quietly collect their profits

 

[Carlo_M]

First of all, Phair is credited as cowriter on those songs.

Second of all, were any of you there during the writing and recording sessions? So how could you possibly know to what extent Liz cowrote the songs? Sure she could have had minimal input, but she easily could have had an equal share too.

Also, writing songs is one thing, performing them is another. As an amateur singer/songwriter/guitarist myself, I can tell you that my process is totally collaborative with friends who are musicians. Yet the ideas stem from me, and though they help out to varying degrees, and if I ever get an album out some will undoubtedly get cowriting credits, they would be the first to tell you that they are *my* songs.

Finally: 9/14 songs with her as the primary writer ain't bad. Look at current darling Norah Jones' writing credits on her album. Now that's making cash off of someone else's works.

 

[Grant B]

Mike

Holland Dozier, and the Matrix, for that matter, deserve much more of the spotlight and credit than their respective clients do.

They sure do but generally the songwriters take a back seat. It just seems like people are giving her a lot of guff for not writing everything which is silly. When Dylan wrote songs with J. Levy for Blood on the Tracks or when the Beatles sang Carl Perkins and Chuck Berry no one gave them crap for not writing every song. Sometimes you go through a dry spell...

 

[MikeDeVincenzo]

Grant

I think my final comment on the matter will be that Carl Perkins and Chuck Berry are on another planet compared to a group of people that churns out material for the likes of Avril Lavigne.

Well, no matter what happens from here on out, I'll always love "Exile" and "Whipsmart", and I think if an artist is able to come up with even one amazing piece of work, they've done something praiseworthy indeed.

 

[JohnAP]

Going in to this album, I didn't expect it to be on the same level as her previous work, maybe that's why I was surprised that I actually liked most of the songs. It's not the direction I wanted from a new Liz Phair album, but she shouldn't have to just be the indie rock icon hipsters want her to be. So maybe she's having a mid-life crisis, at least she's having fun with it.

The matrix tracks, sound too much like the stuff I hear on modern rock radio and that's a shame, but lyrically, I think they're great andI don't think she compromised anything. It is that aspect of the singles that separates her from the other artists on the radio.

In particular, I think Little Digger, Favorite, and My Bionic Eyes are great songs and I don't think any of the tracks are the embarrassing messes that people were predicting when it was revealed she was doing some tracks with the matrix (which, by the way, is a terrible name for a production team). The songs are taken from like four different recording sessions over the last few years, so I wouldn't expect as singular a statement or sound as Guyville has either.

I guess I feel the same way about this record as I do the Zwan record; it's not Siamese Dream, but you could tell Billy Corgan was having fun and not trying to best his more iconic albums anymore and taken on it's own, it was a good album. The new Phair album isn't Exile in guyville, or even WhiteChocolateSpaceEgg, but I can tell she's enjoying herself on it and I don't feel like she compromised her integrity. Phair made a good album and that's all it comes down to for me.

 

[Grant B]

I feel so dumb but I have to admit I have no idea who Avril Lavigne is ... I keep hearing about the 'matrix' tracks. Did she (they) write music for the matrix or something?