Liz Phair: Liz Phair

Liz Phair
Liz Phair
Capitol

No big surprise to find Liz Phair writing songs about fucking again. It's been five years since she released her last record, so there's been plenty of time for fooling around. Plenty of time to prettify her voice, to revisit the indie pop of the '90s, to experiment with synths and techno--and also to get a little lazy. There's no urgency burning on Liz Phair--these days, she's just a more mature woman who talks of raising kids and seducing younger men. Fuck and run? Phair looks like she might be up for it, pictured as she is on the record sleeve in fishnet stockings. Sonically, however, she seems like she's more ready to fuck and then climb behind the wheel of a Lexus, driving the speed limit all the way home.

The energy change may have something to do with Phair's muses du jour. Exile in Guyville, Phair's classic, was filled with bad boys for Phair to butt heads (and other things) with. Fittingly, the distorted chord metal crunch intro of the new track "Extraordinary" seems to promise a run-in with a fun-loving headbanger. But no, it's Phair who eventually pops in, sweetly singing about the more depressing aspects of love: being bored with each other, fighting over whose turn it is to take out the trash. Phair finds a more exciting man to sing about on the simple power-chord-and-reverbed-drums track "Rock Me"--not a domestic partner, but some boy toy who doesn't have a decent record collection. "He doesn't even know who Liz Phair is," she sings, and this is really sexy to our weary protagonist.

Well, no one can expect Phair to remain charged by naughty trysts forever. A woman evolves, as this record shows, even if her development is uneven. Parts of the album are painful to listen to (check "It's Sweet"'s weird Asian synth-pop lead), though Phair is clever and cool on the catchy, new-wave "My Bionic Eyes" and the pretty-little-thing-called-love finger-snapper "HWC" ("Hot White Come," oh my!). It's hard not to wonder, though, if Phair is faking all that hot-young-thing passion.

Let's hope not. She doesn't have to be a wild party girl the rest of her life, but growing up could still bring inspired revelations to her music. Such epiphanies don't have to come through fucking, either--but hey, there's really no reason to stop doing it now.