Sunday, August 12, 2012

I wish I was 6'1"

Artist: Liz Phair
Album: Exile in Guyville
Released: June 22, 1993
Hello blog reading world!  I’m not Brian unfortunately.  This is personal, close friend of Brian, Dan!  I’ve discussed music at length with Brian over the years we’ve known each other.  Recently, as I was listening to some 90s music that slipped me by during my youth, I stumbled upon Liz Phair.  I immediately starting chatting up Brian right away about this great sound I overlooked.
Well, I mainly overlooked it because all I was familiar with was her 2003 hit, “Why Can’t I.”  But thank goodness for Pandora, it really does help to expand the view to new artists as it did in this case.  One thing I liked right away looking back on Liz, was just her sound on the albums before the self titled 2003 album.  It was rough, grungy, and had an attitude of “this is who I am, deal with it.”  During my discussion with Brian I thought it was important to get some history on Liz Phair.
Finding out that she was born in 1967 and I in 1986 and with the explicit lyrics (“Flower”) from what she was putting out, it’s not a surprise I wasn’t listening to it at that age.  But anyway, she attended school at Oberlin College after growing up in a Chicago suburb.  Then she moved out to San Francisco and came back to Chicago then eventually got a label with Matador records and put out Exile in Guyville [with a very racy cover, thanks Liz!].  She had some earlier tracks on tapes called Girly Sound but I can’t find that to listen to anywhere.  In an interview with itunes, she said, she called it that because she would speed up her voice and use explicit lyrics to challenge gender norms.  Her next couple albums up to the 2003 album did have some radio hits like “Never Said” and “Supernova.”  But that’s not what set her apart and made her a cult icon of the time; it’s what wasn’t on the radio.
“F*** and Run” is probably her most popular song from Exile in Guyville but clearly could not be released on the radio.  Now there were other female artists at the time.  You can draw some comparisons to Courtney Love, The Cranberries, Sheryl Crow, and this is a bit of a 90s stretch (slightly 80s), The Cowboy Junkies.  But I can explain how she is completely different with one word, honesty.  Her music took the reality of what most women are like that are in their mid 20s and put it in song.  It feels honest to me.  When I listen to a Liz track, I know I’m listening to someone who is honest about not knowing what they want, being vocal about it, and not caring what others think.  This music was awesome and not only is how women feel, but guys can relate too because guys date women and know how they are.  I’m not trying to disparaging any of the other artists I’ve mentioned or call them dishonest (after all she did perform with Sheryl Crow on “Soak Up The Sun”) but this is someone who went on a solo tour (as in no backup band) in 1995 and it wasn’t acoustic.  She is the stand alone, the real female icon of the 90s.
Now a lot of people accuse Liz of selling out in 2003 when she switched labels to Capitol Records and put out some Poppy songs.  But honestly, I don’t think so.  Many people get angry with artists for changing their sound (people today hate Weezer for the same reason), but in fact a true music artist doesn’t write songs for people, they write them for themselves.  And the only thing people didn’t like about it, was that it sounded like a Pop record.  But in fact, if you listen to the lyrics, even “What Can’t I,” it is not stuff you would just yell out loud.  “Why Can’t I” is about two people cheating on each their significant others even though it sounds like a Pop song.  And so what, can’t an artist evolve and become the “Volvo Driving Soccer Mom” if they want to?  Liz only released Somebody’s Miracle before re-releasing Exile in Guyville and now composes music for television shows and released a downloadable album called Funstyle in 2010.
Overall, Liz Phair is great and is a departure from the idolized women that fill the media and radio.  She really broke the mold and did what she wanted to do.  So many female Pop artists today are not like that at all (well, Liz IS a Rock artist though, but you get my point.)  Too much vanity in female artists today, and Liz is not about that, which is refreshing.  So I’ve spoken enough about what spurred from a conversation with Brian, let’s Rock and Roll and get Grungy with Liz in Exile in Guyville.

BRIAN:

Thanks, Dan, I appreciate your suggesting this album to me and for your effort in writing the above.  There’s no doubt, this is not an album that children should be listening to!  Anyway, there were several females who tried the whole alternative/pop rock thing back in the ‘90s, such as Courtney Love, Sheryl Crow, Alanis Morisette, The Cranberries, and I guess even Melissa Etheridge… but none of them pulled off that edge, that attitude of “this is reality, deal with it” the way that Liz Phair does in Exile in Guyville.  (I discussed one of my favorite female performers, Natalie Merchant, in an earlier post, but I don’t think she was going for quite the same thing.)

There are several features of this album that make it stand out: the lo-fi sound that gives it character; the way that several of the tracks start of really upbeat and make you think they are gonna take off, only to come back down to earth; and the often unpleasant lyrics (Now all we gotta do is get a preacher / He can probably skip the 'until death' part / Because Johnny my love you're already dead – wow, how many songs are like that?)  Yes, this is a really difficult album to listen to in some ways, yet there is something to be said for being different and even outlandish.  And, if you can get past that, this can actually be an enjoyable album.

In many of my reviews, I try to at least mention every song, but with 18 tracks and two people writing this would get way too long.  So, I’ll just touch on a few.  “Dance of the Seven Veils” is an awesome song on several levels.  The lyrics are entertaining, and I also like the irony of what sounds like a sweet love song with some cruel lyrics (the line from above is from this song).  I think the most interesting part of the album is roughly around tracks 5-8.  At the beginning of the album, Liz goes with her basic indie rock and later revisits that, but she experiments a little along the way.  “Explain It to Me” is possibly my favorite song on the album.  The vocals and the guitar sound just seem to blend perfectly to create a great soft rock track.  “Soap Star Joe” is interesting, as it introduces some blues rock with the lo-fi sound.  The vocals are a little more upbeat, and I think it one of Liz’s best vocal performances on the album.  Then there’s “Canary”, which I also really like.  The piano sounds chilling in lo-fi, and Liz’s deeper female voice actually blends with it well because she is singing more softly.

For a debut album, this turned out pretty well, especially since there is a lot of experimentation and variety.  A few of the songs are pretty nondescript, but the songs I mentioned above in particular are entertaining and definitely make for something to talk about.  For now, I’m gonna turn it back over to Dan and let him talk about a few of the other songs before wrapping things up.

DAN:

What isn't enjoyable about this Brian?  The very first track 6’ 1” is enjoyable in and of itself.  It has that low-fi simple grunge sound.  It’s a song of identity.  Pretty much, if you are looking to feel independent and strong, then this song will give that exactly.   The next song I’m rating is “The Divorce Song.”  This song has some minor special meaning to me because I was in a long-term relationship that ended and we tried the friendship thing but it still didn’t work out.  This song is probably one of the best break-up songs of all time and pretty much proves that once an intimate relationship is over, so is all connection to the other person and it has some raw lyrics to go with it.  The last song I’m reviewing quickly here was not released on the original release but rather the re-release.  It’s “Instrumentals.”  I love this one and it is easily my favorite on the track because it is literally Liz playing with a phased guitar for several minutes just living life.  That’s exactly what I do half the time when I’m bored and trying to past time.  Even if you don’t play an instrument, sometimes you are humming to yourself something random just thinking about whatever and this song captures that to a T.  Either way, I would say this is in my top 3 90s albums of all time with or without the additional tracks from the re-release with the other two being New Miserable Experience by the Gin Blossoms and Ten by Pearl Jam.  These three albums of the early 90s blazed a path of grunge, rock, and blues that set up so many other great artists for success and Exile in Guyville is the one people tend to forget about most.  But not anymore, hopefully Brian and I can declare today Exile in Guyville day in remembrance of the day when one women took on grunge and 90s angst to make it her own.

Track #, Name of Song, Duration, My Rating
1. 6'1" (3:06) - 9/10
2. Help Me Mary (2:16) - 8/10
3. Glory (1:29) - 8/10
4. Dance of the Seven Veils (2:29) - 10/10
5. Never Said (3:16) - 9/10
6. Soap Star Joe (2:44) - 10/10
7. Explain It to Me (3:11) 10/10
8. Canary (3:19) - 9/10
9. Mesmerizing (3:55) - 8/10
10. F*** and Run (3:07) - 8/10
11. Girls! Girls! Girls! (2:20) - 7/10
12. Divorce Song (3:20) - 9/10
13. Shatter (5:28) - 9/10
14. Flower (2:03) - 7/10
15. Johnny Sunshine (3:26) - 8/10
16. Gunshy (3:15) - 7/10
17. Stratford-On-Guy (2:59) - 9/10
18. Strange Loop (4:56) - 7/10