Quote:
while I didn't like the music enough to keep the album the photo on the album cover is fabulous.
- the man with the dark desires |
yeah, there's nothing like a woman leaning forward with an open mouth... personally its the nipple shot in the jacket that does it for me.
i've compared exile in guyville to the stones' exile on mainstreet and i can only see it as a song by song response when i try too hard - i have no clue if that was a promotional statement or if it was the actual inspiration for the album. that said its brilliant, divorce song is a hell of a tune and **** and run made her the patti smith of the time. liz phair showed talent on that debut and its hard for me to understand how anyone can deny that.
whip smart was those simple but catchy riffs and for a long time i was a big fan of it. nowadays it barely finds its way into my rotation... there was a time when i thought of her driving out west as a modern day version of joni mitchell's california, now i see the album as too simple. juevenallia was a piece of crap, an ep released in the wake of her positive press but disjointed and pointless.
whitechocolatespaceegg was an album i waited a long time for: it was pushed back and back and back for whatever reason, there was a time when it had a set release date and was slated for advance release to reviewers but that time never came - there was such disorginization and false hype around the release that when it finally hit the scence a lot of people were bitter over its content.
when considering that album i can't help but look at the difference between an angry youth and one singing of sons and family. just as ani difranco catches **** for supposedly losing her anger and edge (by singing of relationships in reckoning/revelling) phair was bashed by a few women's groups for her apparent happiness. its pure ********: johnny sunshine isn't that far removed from exile's boys pissing in the kitchen sink and her addition of song structure doesn't point to someone losing her edge but to someone who's becoming a songwriter. she isn't aimee mann and she isn't joni mitchell, but consider what other woman was such an intriguing and controversial voice in the 90's? courtney love's work was barely interesting, ani difranco spoke of political and sociological issues, meshell ndgeocello showed serious promise but wasn't taken nearly seriously enough. phair was it.
just my perspective as a fan,
carlo.