LIZ PHAIR
Liz Phair (born April 17, 1967) is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, composer, and actress. Her 1993 debut studio album, Exile in Guyville, was released to critical acclaim; it has been ranked by Rolling Stone as one of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Phair followed this with her second album, Whip-Smart (1994), which earned her a Grammy Award nomination for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, and Whitechocolatespaceegg (1998). Ten years after the release of her debut, Phair’s fourth album, Liz Phair (2003), was released on Capitol Records; and her music began to move in a more pop rock-oriented direction, earning her a mainstream audience. The self-titled 2003 album spawned the single “Why Can’t I?”, which peaked at number 32 on the Billboard Hot 100. As of 2011, Phair had sold over three million records worldwide. (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)
