maura's Full Review: whitechocolatespaceegg [PA] by Liz Phair
When Liz Phair's EXILE IN GUYVILLE came out, all the boy-crits who normally spend their time being read to sleep while sitting in the lap of Greil Marcus took notice. Hey, a hot blond chick was singing about sex ... and how she *liked* it! And the songs were kinda catchy, and there was a nice turn of phrase here and there. And so Liz was the It Girl for the angry but still kinda hot chick movement, opening the cultural floodgates that later allowed Alanis Morrisette and Fiona Apple to be unleashed on the world a few years later. And while Alanis was screeching about scratching her nails down men's backs and Fiona was moaning about being a criminal, Liz was ... getting marrried? having a BABY?
Say it isn't so, said the critics. Early notices on whitechocolatespaceegg, Liz's first record since 1994's WHIP-SMART, were lukewarm. "She's mellowed." "The songs aren't as catchy." And of course, the post-wife-and-mother status of Liz was brought up in every review I read; how could it not, since the title track is an ambiguously worded love song that might be construed to be towards her fetus?? Totally not my thing, the boy-masses cried.
But. But but but. What the boys neglected to see was the utter *catchiness*, the airy melodies and extra-value-added production (organs!) that dominate most of whitechocolatespaceegg.The sonic loopiness of "What Makes You Happy," a song about a girl relating to her mom about her new love, is matched by the utter sweetness of the lyrics, while songs like "Ride" and the tongue-in-cheek half-spoken "Big Tall Man" swagger with the best of them, not forgetting that while it's fun to rock, it's even more fun to rock and be smart. "Polyester Bride" saunters out of crackly clock-radio speakers in ways that pop songs haven't since the rise of the Great Angsty Post-Nirvana Band.
whitechocolatespaceegg might not be the as brash as EXILE IN GUYVILLE; here, instead, the audience is presented with a new, mature Liz Phair, one who can turn a phrase and a note while still tugging at your heartstrings. The critics might not get it, but the girls who were freshmen when GUYVILLE came out -- singing "don't you know I'm really happy?" to themselves softly, under their breath, after each disappointment -- will most surely understand.
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