Liz Phair Funstyle Review

Ok... it seems no one will touch the thing except with adjectives like "batshit weird". So I'll do it.

First off though, if you're expecting it to be guyville just stop reading. Liz Phair will probably never put out another album as good as Exile. I've said it before, but it's still true, one of exile's strengths is that since it was her first album she had her pick of every single one of the girlysound songs. She's had five years to do this one and I doubt even if she had as many songs as she did then that it would be as good.

But, I think girlysound is a good comparison point. On girlysound there were songs about elvis and cows for goodness sake! With that in mind it makes more sense that a third of the tracks are "joke" tracks. I mean how can you take liz seriously when she's wrapping over a tabla beat or when she's impersonating a hardass east-coast soccer mom? So if you didn't like bollywood, don't worry, it's not the best track on the album by far. However, after repeated listens I found myself looking forward to these tracks the most just because they're more interesting instrumentally than the other more "serious" tracks. But yeah... Smoke, Bollywood, Beat is Up, and U Hate It are all pretty much throwaways much in the vein of Say You taken to the extreme.

So you might say, what of the other tracks that aren't blatant jokes... Well some of them are good (a few maybe could pass as Whip Smart throwaways), and some are just mediocre. Bang! Bang! sort of reminds me of some of the cuts off of Beck's Modern Guilt but I just find it too bland to bring me in. You Should Know Me is also sort of meh.... I feel like she's written better lyrics in the past. Does she really have to go back to nursery rhymes to get material for choruses? I'm looking at you And He Slayed Her.

However it's not all bad, which is the most surprising part. Miss September is one of the more promising tracks. I feel like the production is a little cliche but I feel like the sound of this song isn't an attempt to recreate the sound of guyville but more of an extension, more mature I guess. I think My My is interesting because it seems like she's dipping into sort of Midnite Vultures era Beck not as funky though. But the best part is that it's not a total joke, she's clearly capable of branching out without resorting to humor. Oh bangladesh is a nice slice of indie rock (and the winner of the closest to something on Exile). It's great to hear her multitracking her vocals again. However my favorite song on the album is Satisfied. Sure it's the song that probably sounds like something she'd put out on a major but tell me those synth lines and choruses aren't great. And the lyrics are better, though far from her best.

In conclusion, everybody has a lot to be confused about. I mean this whole thing could be a giant joke (she did have 4 "joke" tracks, that's a lot even for her). She did have 5 years since the last album so there could be more/better stuff out there. The best possible case would be that it IS a joke and these are just the throwaways from her actual album. However, I'm too pessimistic to believe that so what's left is an album of throwaways and jokes with some redeeming moments. It may not be her best work but it is definitely a step in the right direction.

6/22 Half Price Books N Lamar

Yeah... I listened to Exile In Guyville all day at work. I couldn't help but get whip smart and I've known it was there for quite some time.

Records--
Whip Smart by Liz Phair -- 20
Scott Joplin (performed by Dick Hyman) -- 3
Count Meets the Duke First Time by Count Basie and Duke Ellington -- 10
Blaze by Herman's Hermits -- 5
Hello Dolly by Louis Armstrong -- 6

Ok... So Whip Smart is totally underrated. It's hard to follow up from guyville but, guyville had the advantage of taking any of the songs from girlysound so it's not really fair (no pun intended). Still, if you're going to complain that the version of whip smart is "ingenuous" or "ironic" because it has animal sounds, you should be complaining that phair totally didn't do the second section of Girls! Girls! Girls! or she didn't mimic the stones on Shatter. So it's sort of give and take. If you want the girlysound versions, listen to that, but if you want something else, give Whip smart a shot.

Scott Joplin... yeah. I went through the jazz section because there was a guy hovering over the s' (he was looking for styx... ew....) Anyways. It was pretty cheap and it's pretty good.

Yeah I really dig duke ellington and this collaboration is pretty cool. It's got both band's sort of signature tracks (take the A train and jumpin at the woodside) so it's cool.

I think the best one of the jazz records that I got was Hello Dolly. I mean sure it's not the classic armstrong of the twenties or anything like that but it is really good all around. It's sort of weird to think that Louis was 63 years old when he made it, but it's whatever I guess.

The herman's hermits album is a little bit harder to explain. I got it for two reasons: 1) Joey ramone once described punk as "a sixties rip-off band" and mentioned HH and 2) The cover is bad ass. I've been really digging the 60's lately and the kaleidoscopic cover got me. Music wise it's pretty standard for the time which isn't bad, although expected.