EXILE IN GUYVILLE
Exile in Guyville is the debut album by American indie rock singer-songwriter Liz Phair. It was released in June 1993 to widespread critical and commercial success, still appearing today in many critics’ best-of lists. It is also considered a landmark in alternative rock music, and was ranked at 327 by Rolling Stone in its 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list. As of July 2010, the album had sold 491,000 copies. (More from Wikipedia)
I was a subscriber to The Village Voice long before I moved to the city in 1990, and that was one way that I stayed in touch with the musical scene. Lead rock critic Robert Christgau spearheaded an annual poll of hundreds of music critics, with the results published as Pazz & Jop (a rather corny takeoff on “jazz & pop”, though they never really talked much about jazz). I looked forward to it each year, but in 1993, so many of the albums on the list were completely unknown to me, starting with the #1 pick, Liz Phair’s Exile in Guyville. Next year, that will be 25 years ago – a long time of not being “with it”.
(June 2017)
