From: owner-support-system-digest@smoe.org (support-system-digest) To: support-system-digest@smoe.org Subject: support-system-digest V8 #153 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, November 1 2005 Volume 08 : Number 153 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [support-system] Re: support-system-digest V8 #152 [Mariam Hamou ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 31 Oct 2005 06:09:14 -0500 From: Mariam Hamou Subject: [support-system] Re: support-system-digest V8 #152 I can't disagree with this statement more: "Liz Phair can't win. If she makes a pop record (as she did with 2003's "Liz Phair"), she's branded a sellout. If she reverts to her alt-chick "Exile in Guyville" past, prigs brand her a potty-mouth and purist fans will still say she ain't what she used to be." I consider myself a purist - I've been listening to Liz since '93 - I fell in love with Exile in my first year of university (I'm dating myself). This new stuff is just too slick for my taste but to say that if she reverts back to being an alt-chick we're going to say she's not what she used to be? She put out the comeandgetit EP with the self-titled and found it just fine. And no, we'll never expect her to go back to guyville because her life has changed drastically since and we expect her to grow as an artist, but the "purist fans" just think she grew a little bit in the "sold out" direction. But whatever....I still love Liz and will dish out the $14 for anything she releases and being the die hard, unconditional love fan that I am, I will still try to find something beautiful in an overproduced boring mess I've been given. x's and o's - -- Mariam Hamou Sometimes a Dream Makes you a Slave Liz Phair ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 31 Oct 2005 00:04:14 -0800 From: Kenneth Lee Subject: [support-system] Somebody's Miracle review (The Daily Cardinal) From The Daily Cardinal (University of Wisconsin-Madison): (http://www.dailycardinal.com/article.php?storyid=1027416) Phair album no 'miracle', but still solid Ryan Ausloos The Daily Cardinal Liz Phair's latest release is lyrically very different from her previous work. Gone is her desire to be someone's "blow-job queen". Instead, she wishes to be part of somebody's fairy tale as in the title track, or to have someone who means everything to her as in the first single, "Everything to Me". Similar themes of longing and regret give this album-heavier on ballads than Phair's previous work-a more adult alternative feel. It is thankfully not as poppy as her last album, "Liz Phair", but, much to the chagrin of many hardcore fans, not the stripped-down sound of her much lauded debut, "Exile in Guyville". The best songs on this album display Phair's trademark attitude and confessional tone. "Why I Lie" is a strutting anthem about a woman who admits she constantly lies to and hurts her lover, but either doesn't know how or refuses to change, while "Table for One" is the heartbreakingly honest first-person tale of a close relative battling alcoholism. Other songs, like the track "Wind and the Mountain", "Everything to Me" and "Leap of Innocence", make great counterparts to Phair's "Polyester Bride", off of her 1998 album "Whitechocolatespaceegg". The best song on the album is "Got My Own Thing", a bratty kiss-off to her detractors whom she dismisses with, "I do what I do, 'cause I do what I do." Where the album falters, however, is in the songs that were clearly written to satisfy the Top-40 half of Liz's fan base. "Stars and Planets", while catchy in parts, is a generic song about the perils of celebrity, made even worse to listen to by the fact that Phair willfully traded her indie cred for pop success with "Liz Phair". "Lazy Dreamer" just sounds lazy. Ditto "Count on My Love" and "Giving It All to You". Phair is a very talented songwriter, but pop is not her forti. She would have been better off getting the Matrix back to retool the poppier numbers or, better yet, left them off the album entirely as they add little and don't fit the tone of the album as a whole. Those expecting to hear another rendition of "Exile in Guyville" needn't bother listening to this record, but fans of "Whitechocolatespaceegg", "Liz Phair" and adult alternative music in general should find this album well worth listening to. It may not be the miracle the title promises, but with at least 10 solid tracks out of 14, it may just be worth your time. - -Ken kenmlee@ix.netcom.com MeSmErIzInG - AnOtHeR LiZ PhAiR WeBsItE http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Club/2471/ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 31 Oct 2005 18:12:30 -0500 (EST) From: Stephen Griffes Subject: [support-system] popmatters essay there's an interesting essay on liz and third wave feminism at popmatters: http://www.popmatters.com/music/features/051031-lizphair.shtml ------------------------------ End of support-system-digest V8 #153 ************************************