Phair alienates the hipsters

Liz Phair's self-titled, fourth album is guaranteed to be one of the most disputed releases of 2003. The debate, unfortunately, will not be about how good Liz Phair is, or whether or not it is a return to form, it will be about just how bad this new album is. The flurry of press so far has been scathing, calling Phair everything from a slut to a sell-out. These critics seem to forget that her last two albums weren't very good either.\nThe sell-out tag mainly came premature due to the people involved with the album's creation. Phair (or her record company) employed the likes of Pete Yorn's producer, Aimee Mann's husband, Michael Penn and the production team behind Avril Lavigne, The Matrix. Their production values add radio-friendly ease to Phair's songs, and her fans see this as a betrayal to the lo-fi brilliance of her debut album, Exile in Guyville.\nLiz Phair finds the singer-songwriter pandering with her pen as well as sonically. Shock-value songs like "Hot White Cum" and "Rock Me" (in which she sings, "I'm starting to think young guys rule") make a play to snickering, teenage boys, while others like "Extraordinary" and "Why Can't I?" seem to aim at a women's lib crowd. The extremes do not add up.\nPhair is and always has been a good songwriter, though. She gets more comfortable on "My Bionic Eyes" and "It's Sweet," providing melody, harder guitars and faster beats as well as somewhat interesting messages. This flirtation with decency is mostly what the open frustration is about, and hearing her faculties crumble is more sui generis than it is fascinating.\nPhair has created a record that she desperately wants to sell, even going so far as posing nude on the cover. Her methods are insipid and unforgivable, but her given talents are undeniable. If this were a Sheryl Crow album, the talk might be how this is tactfully subversive. For Phair though, it is just boring, but only as boring as Lucinda Williams or Kasey Chambers.