Indie queen phairer than most

Liz Phair has a high mark to match too. Her debut album "Exile in Guyville", released in 1992, will most likely be remembered as one of the great masterpieces of the '90s indie rock world.

Paving the way for less intelligent, although more commercially successful acts, such as Alanis Morrisette and Meredith Brooks, "Exile..." patented Phair's direct-as-nails approach to subjects such as sex and relationships. One might observe the direct line between Phair's "Fuck and Run" and Morrisette's "You Oughtta Know."

But with her first full length release since 1994's bland sophomore slump-ish "Whip-Smart," Liz Phair has graced us a hum-dinger of an album that combines her trademark witty and introspective lyricism with a more sophisticated sense of melody and pop-craft.

The album opener/title track, "Big Tall Man," "Uncle Alvarez," "Only Son", "Fantasize" (which features all of R.E.M., sans Michael Stipe), and, especially, the single "Polyester Bride" are among the most tuneful tracks that Phair has ever recorded.

Where on her past records, Phair often let her songs' catchiness take a back seat to the lyrics, a highly developed pop sense finds its way into most of the tracks on "Whitechocolatespaceegg".

Liz Phair
Whitechocolatespaceegg Matador Records 3 stars Reviewed by Daily Arts Writer Stephen Gertz

Coupled with the more well-calculated song structures is a less literal and more oblique lyrical technique.

And although the bash 'em over-the-head brashness of Phair's past records does find its way into a few new numbers, such as "Johnny Feelgood" ("I never realized I was so dirty and dry/ till he knocked me down/ and started dragging me around/ in the back of his convertible car/ ... and I liked it"), most of the the album expresses a sense of longing and delicacy, quite possibly byproducts of Phair's recent transition into motherhood.

While "Whitechocolatespaceegg" most likely will not make as many waves in the music world as "Exile in Guyville," it is just as good for different reasons.

By fusing brilliant harmonies with more sophisticated subject matter, Phair has escalated her career into the realm of Joan Baez and Paul Simon in terms of poetic quality.

Hipper than the Lillith ladies and smarter than Alanis, she has regained her spot as rock's coolest big sister.

09-09-98