From: owner-support-system-digest@smoe.org (support-system-digest) To: support-system-digest@smoe.org Subject: support-system-digest V8 #132 Reply-To: support-system@smoe.org Sender: owner-support-system-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-support-system-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk support-system-digest Tuesday, October 11 2005 Volume 08 : Number 132 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [support-system] Did I get shafted? ["Andrea Steiner" ] RE: [support-system] Did I get shafted? ["Brett Marlow" ] [support-system] Random Thoughts about Somebody's Miracle ["Victoria R." ] [support-system] Somebody's Miracle reviews (Billboard / Slant Magazine) [Kenneth Lee Subject: [support-system] Did I get shafted? My copy of "Somebody's Miracle" doesn't have 'Can't Get Out of What I'm Into.' Does anyone know why that might be? Did it not make it to the finished version? I've seen labels on "Liz Phair" saying it was the edited version, but I didn't see any labels like that on the CD I bought. If I actually bought an edited version I will really feel stupid. ~Andrea S. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 10 Oct 2005 03:43:26 -0400 From: Jase Subject: Re: [support-system] Did I get shafted? Andrea S. wrote: >My copy of "Somebody's Miracle" doesn't have 'Can't Get Out of What I'm Into.' >Does anyone know why that might be? Did it not make it to the finished >version? I've seen labels on "Liz Phair" saying it was the edited version, but >I didn't see any labels like that on the CD I bought. If I actually bought an >edited version I will really feel stupid. While "Can't Get Out of What I'm Into" was on the promo copies sent out of the new record, it was pulled from the official release at the last minute and replaced with "Closer to You." If you ask me, it was a good decision. The new version of "Can't Get Out" wasn't as good as I had hoped and "Closer to You" better fits the mood of the album. If you download the album from iTunes or purchase the Japanese import, "Can't Get Out" is included as a bonus track. Cheers, Jase ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 10 Oct 2005 07:42:15 -0400 From: "Brett Marlow" Subject: RE: [support-system] Did I get shafted? At Saturday night's show, they were selling copies of the promo CD (with the bonus DVD) with "Can't Get Out Of What I'm Into" on it for $20. - -----Original Message----- From: owner-support-system@smoe.org [mailto:owner-support-system@smoe.org] On Behalf Of Jase Sent: Monday, October 10, 2005 3:43 AM To: support-system@smoe.org Subject: Re: [support-system] Did I get shafted? Andrea S. wrote: >My copy of "Somebody's Miracle" doesn't have 'Can't Get Out of What I'm Into.' >Does anyone know why that might be? Did it not make it to the finished >version? I've seen labels on "Liz Phair" saying it was the edited version, but >I didn't see any labels like that on the CD I bought. If I actually bought an >edited version I will really feel stupid. While "Can't Get Out of What I'm Into" was on the promo copies sent out of the new record, it was pulled from the official release at the last minute and replaced with "Closer to You." If you ask me, it was a good decision. The new version of "Can't Get Out" wasn't as good as I had hoped and "Closer to You" better fits the mood of the album. If you download the album from iTunes or purchase the Japanese import, "Can't Get Out" is included as a bonus track. Cheers, Jase ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 10 Oct 2005 13:52:12 -0700 (PDT) From: Easter Subject: [support-system] Re: 2' 30 concert? Bill in CT asked: Liz played for 2 1/2 hours? You're right, it was 1.5 hours. My mistake! It was a typo. ;) Katie (); ) ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ "Beatles and children first." George Harrison ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ __________________________________ Yahoo! Mail - PC Magazine Editors' Choice 2005 http://mail.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 10 Oct 2005 16:58:56 -0500 From: "Victoria R." Subject: [support-system] Random Thoughts about Somebody's Miracle Hi all... I've listened to the album a lot the past several days, and had a few random thoughts to share. Does anyone else feel like this would have been better as a summer release? Some of the songs just beg for a windows down, driving listen. A few of the songs sound like they could end up in a Christian youth group retreat. It slightly weirded me out when I realized that, but power to her. I just find it funny that the same person who wrote Flower might end up having a song in the backdrop of a church-related function. One of my favorite songs so far is Everything (Between Us). I think her singing on this song is particularly good. I agree with whomever posted this several weeks ago that the order should have been done differently. I haven't tried your order yet, but I will soon. I think the beginning of Leap of Innocence is very weak--if I was listening to snippets in a store, deciding on whether to buy it, I might have had a hard time getting past the first track. Anyway, just my thoughts. Have a wonderful day everyone! Victoria ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 10 Oct 2005 15:22:37 -0700 From: Kenneth Lee Subject: [support-system] Somebody's Miracle reviews (Billboard / Slant Magazine) Oops, in my last post I forgot to post the link. From The Badger Herald (University of Wisconsin-Madison): (http://badgerherald.com/artsetc/2005/10/06/new_liz_phair_album_.php) ***** Two more reviews of "Somebody's Miracle": From Billboard: (http://www.billboard.com/bb/reviews/album_article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id =1001262308) LIZ PHAIR Album Title: "Somebody's Miracle" Producer(s): John Alagia, John Shanks, Dino Meneghin Genre: POP Label/Catalog Number: Capitol Release Date: Oct. 4 First the good news: "Somebody's Miracle" is more respectable than Phair's self-titled 2003 effort, an album that embarrassingly found her chasing a top 40 sound. "Somebody's Miracle", by contrast, sees Phair bringing back a bit of maturity and complexity to her songwriting, including the not-getting-any-younger struggle of "Wind and the Mountain" and the loneliness-fueled alcohol abuse referenced in "Table for One". The problem, however, is that even the few noteworthy moments are lost in the banality of the music. With production from John Alagia and pop hitmaker of the moment John Shanks, "Somebody's Miracle" frames Phair's conversational vocals in a professionally dull backdrop of modern AC music, packing all the punch of a book-club meeting. - -Todd Martens ***** From Slant Magazine: (http://www.slantmagazine.com/music/music_review.asp?ID=670) Liz Phair "Somebody's Miracle" Capitol, 2005 2 stars (out of 5) Faced with the dilemma of following up a critically reviled album, Liz Phair has made the mistake of attempting to please everyone -- both the rock nerds who still get blue-balls listening to "Exile In Guyville" and the Hot Topic kids who championed the reinvented Phair as Avril's gold-certified MILF-and has ended up with an album, "Somebody's Miracle", that's sure to meet no one's expectations. At this point, it would've been impossible for Phair to reconcile the two disparate phases of her career, and that's largely Phair's own doing. What her interviews around the time of 2003's "Liz Phair" consistently displayed was a bizarre sort of contempt for the audience who, a decade on, still responded so strongly to the brilliant opening salvo of "Guyville"-she just never seemed to "get" the album's critical reception. And in stating her ambition for breaking through to a massive pop audience, she claimed that she needed the assistance of powerhouse production team The Matrix, ignoring the fact that, but for running her vocals through ProTools and for keeping her guitars in tune, singles like "Never Said" and "Supernova" already made it clear that she had a strong pop sensibility. While the singles from "Liz Phair" weren't the least bit bad -- and certainly didn't deserve the bile spewed over them-they were sorely, irrevocably lacking in Phair's unique gifts. Ashlee Simpson could've had a hit with "Why Can't I," and Michelle Branch with "Extraordinary." With "Somebody's Miracle", Phair has either read too much of her own press, perhaps recognizing that she'd alienated almost the entirety of her existing fanbase, or has grossly misinterpreted the source of those minor-hit singles' charms. Sacrificing the pitch correction technology on a set of songs that's supposed to maintain some semblance of commercial momentum (to choose just one of the many flaws on the album) wasn't the right move. Of course, that she's said repeatedly that "Somebody's Miracle" was inspired by Stevie Wonder's "Songs In The Key Of Life" suggests that it's a fundamental incapacity for getting things that's Phair's real problem, since there's not a song on the album to support that comparison. It's an album of "Hot AC" at its most aggressively banal, sure to alienate the bulk of her new fans by issuing a set of songs that come off as a warmed-over collection of b-sides from her under-appreciated 1998 album "whitechocolatespaceegg". With the exception of the fun melodic hook of "Got My Own Thing", there isn't a song on Somebody's Miracle that stands up to repeated listens and there certainly isn't a song that demands such attention. Lead single "Everything To Me," a morass of clichid schmaltz, isn't going to end up in a WNBA commercial. If "Somebody's Miracle" were an album by, say, Anna Nalick, none of this would matter too much, but Phair has waived her right to get off so easily by having been fearless and brilliant (even if that brilliance, in retrospect, seems like a fluke) earlier in her career. Were Clair Denis suddenly to decide to direct a Nora Ephron screenplay, there would be such hemming and hawing that figuring out her motives would emerge as far more interesting than the film itself. So, too, is Phair's calculated decision to transmogrify from indie rock's beloved blowjob queen into a would-be teen-pop inginue and now into Sheryl Crow without the accurate sense of pitch infinitely more compelling than any of the deliberately inoffensive MOR of "Somebody's Miracle". Landing here reaffirms that Phair neither respects whatever audience has formed an ephemeral bond with her nor understands the strengths of her craft. If she still manages to retain a major label recording contract after this bomb, that'll be the real miracle. Jonathan Keefe - -Ken kenmlee@ix.netcom.com MeSmErIzInG - AnOtHeR LiZ PhAiR WeBsItE http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Club/2471/ ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Oct 2005 01:09:38 EDT From: JJewelbaby@aol.com Subject: [support-system] Re: support-system-digest V8 #131 Hi all, Just bought the new album, and am looking forward to listening to it! I'm annoyed that "Can't Get Out of What I'm Into" didn't make it on. Would someone be able to send me this song? I know it was available on iTunes. Please email me off-list if you'd like to trade, or are willing to send it to me Liz fan to Liz fan. :) Thanks!! Julie _Jjewelbaby@aol.com_ (mailto:Jjewelbaby@aol.com) ------------------------------ End of support-system-digest V8 #132 ************************************