From: owner-support-system-digest@smoe.org (support-system-digest) To: support-system-digest@smoe.org Subject: support-system-digest V8 #156 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 Saturday, November 5 2005 Volume 08 : Number 156 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [support-system] Somebody's Miracle review (Greater Milwaukee Today) [Ken] Re: [support-system] Liz in Santa Rosa [Kenneth Lee Subject: [support-system] Somebody's Miracle review (Greater Milwaukee Today) From Greater Milwaukee Today: (http://www.gmtoday.com/timeout/reviews/CD/topstory121.asp) Un-Phair It'll be Somebody's Miracle if anyone cares about Liz anymore By MATTHEW WEBBER - Special to TimeOut Liz Phair's new album, "Somebody's Miracle", might be a miracle for somebody who needs to hear a midtempo, safe and boring adult contemporary album about a singer/songwriter's midlife crisis. For everybody else who used to care about Phair, the album might be the point of no return for their former fandom. Everything I've written so far, and everything I'm going to write, has absolutely nothing to do with the antiquated notion of Phair's alleged selling out and everything to do with her actual music on "Somebody's Miracle". To prove my point, I'll just go ahead and ruin any credibility I might have gained by leaping on the Phair-bashing bandwagon: I actually liked her last album, the critically reviled "Liz Phair", because of how poppy it was. Whereas seemingly an entire industry of mostly male rock critics loathed her attempt to appeal to Avril Lavigne's fans by working with Lavigne's producers, I loved the songs because they were catchier than Lavigne's - which themselves are usually catchy enough to make this jaded 20-something male want to sing along, and I do realize my admission of this fact shatters whatever hipster cred I might have accrued three paragraphs ago. Further, Phair's lyrics on that album, while nowhere near as scathing and profound as Phair's first batch of lo-fidelity poems (on "Exile in Guyville", the album that will be listed in Phair's obituary), were mind-blowing in the context of teen pop. The big hit, "Why Can't I?" was a Trojan rocking horse, invited onto the radio only to infiltrate a teen's consciousness with its candy-coated paeans to infidelity. So, on "Somebody's Miracle", it's not Phair's lyrical content - which includes a prayer for a stable marriage resembling the one her parents' have, and an outro that repeats the word "shine" nearly 20 times - that offends me. Rather, it's the melody in which she sings these lyrics, and the music that backs them, that disappoint me. Forgoing the Matrix production team for producers John Alagia and John Shanks, Phair exchanged the best of Avril Lavigne for the worst of Dave Matthews, John Mayer, Michelle Branch and Ashlee Simpson. Please don't read that sentence as a slur against those artists - except for maybe Jessica Simpson's little sister - because it's not meant to be. The other three artists wouldn't consciously alienate their entire fan base. Also, they wouldn't try so hard to be Sheryl Crow. Further, every single one of these artists' albums, including Ashlee Simpson's, are more melodic and more appropriately produced than "Somebody's Miracle". With the occasional slide guitar and lyrics about drinking vodka, Jim Beam and then coffee in the morning, Phair should have made an alternative country album. With T-Bone Burnett producing it, it might have sounded more authentic than the album she actually made. No, I don't care if a musician sells out. No, I don't care if someone wants to sing about 40-something-year-old topics when she's approaching 40-something. I just care if she sounds interested in the material. I care if her songs are interesting to listen to. If Phair says she cares, I don't believe her. Her backstory is now more relevant than her music. - -Ken kenmlee@ix.netcom.com MeSmErIzInG - AnOtHeR LiZ PhAiR WeBsItE http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Club/2471/ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 03 Nov 2005 23:39:43 -0800 From: Kenneth Lee Subject: Re: [support-system] Liz in Santa Rosa At 07:54 PM 11/3/2005, you wrote: >Anyone know whats happening there? Performance, or just an appearance? >I assume its going to be here and Dino playing a song or two, but, is it a >meet and great also? >Anyone else planning on going? It's a performance for a radio station (Mix 104.1). It's probably going to be Liz and Dino performing between 2 and 5 songs, maybe more, since it's a day off the touring schedule. - -Ken kenmlee@ix.netcom.com MeSmErIzInG - AnOtHeR LiZ PhAiR WeBsItE http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Club/2471/ ------------------------------ End of support-system-digest V8 #156 ************************************