That was dead on. The labels haven't the faintest idea how to make good records anymore in 99.9% of cases. They helped to create the MTV/Clear Channel/multimedia/RIAA beast that exists today and now the overhead is killing them--and artists like Liz Phair are helping in the name of a larger paycheck.

I'm not getting into the sellout debate. I don't know her motives, only that I enjoy the album.

However, the comment about nobody wanting to f**k Liz. That's she not a delicious babe?

Now THAT'S Balderdash!

another vote for.....i'd **** it

Dude, I'd hit it!

Anyhow, I like the album, it sounds like pop, with a depth and substance that pop just doesn't have, doesn't want to have, and will ultimately never have.

Is it what I would consider a "Liz Phair" album....no. I don't see the logical progression from her previous work to this work. Honestly, if I didn't know it was Liz Phair, I'd have some pretty strange guesses as to who was singing this songs.

But remove that qualifier, I asked myself not "Is it a good Liz Phair album", but just "Is it a good album" and the answer is yes. I really like it.

Holy mother of blessed accelleration!



-Gunshy

I don't like the new album, but she did put out one of the ten best rock albums of all time, so I'm willing to cut her a lifetime's worth of slack.

Gimme that old time pop-porn anytime.

Here's something that I read on a Liz Phair site. It's apparently an excerpt of an article about the Matrix (regarding Liz) from Sunday's Los Angeles Times, written by Richard Cromelin:

That confidence would be severely tested in a couple of weeks with the release of Liz Phair's album. If the Matrix presided at the birth of a star with [Avril] Lavigne, it would soon be accused of assisting in the career suicide of the indie-rock heroine.

"Embarrassing" and "desperate" were the keynote words in several vehemently negative reviews of Liz Phair. The album's four collaborations between the Matrix and the singer-songwriter took special abuse in screeds accusing Phair of betraying her fans and her artistry.

"I think the criticism's mainly coming from the point of view that she's kind of abandoned her fan base and moved on to a different area," [Graham] Edwards said after the dust had started to settle. "I think that's a little unfair, because she's allowed to change."

"It's an artistic statement to be able to do something lighter," [Lauren] Christy added. "Liz was saying when she came in to us she'd just come out of a really bad relationship Her marriage had broken up; she'd been in the bummer tent for too long. These songs we did were reflective of where she was at, just wanting to lighten up a bit.

"She knew she'd be criticized, but she loved it. She kept saying to me, 'I know I'm gonna be in trouble for this, but I'm just blasting this stuff in my car and singing along to it, and I love it. I'm proud of it.'"

Their success since then makes it easier to laugh off the criticism — they've even hung up a framed copy of a headline calling them "three soulless droids" — but inevitably, the urge for vindication emerges.

"We don't want to be portrayed as 'Oh, those guys just run a sausage factory over there,' 'cause we really don't," [Scott] Spock says. "We really write from our hearts. We don't consciously think, 'What have we got to do to get this band on the radio?' We just try to do the best we can and write songs."

"It's really hard to say we know what a hit song is or what Liz Phair needed to be a hit," Christy says. "All we know is that the three of us have a sort of a vibe and we feed off each other, and we kind of like what each other does. We don't say we know what will become a hit. We just trust our instincts."

"We like to think of ourselves as we've got this magnifying glass," Spock adds, "and when an artist comes in, we try to take all the cool parts of what they're known for and just magnify them so it's more appealing for the masses to grab a piece of."

"I think I know who the real guys are I'm not easily fooled on who's good," the L.A.-based Englishman [Sandy Roberton] says. "The Matrix are not manufacturing people. They really are songwriters who people come to to get a hit. They can write for American radio. If you're in the pop business, you want records that people want to play and hear."

That includes Phair, who may be taking heat for her decision but also is hearing her song on the radio.

"I've got to say, for all the criticism she's had, she went straight into the album charts at 27," Edwards says. "She's never been that high with any of her records, so people are buying it and wanting to listen to it."