Liz Phair (album)
Liz Phair is the fourth studio album by the American singer-songwriter Liz Phair, released on June 24, 2003, on Capitol Records. It was produced by Phair, Michael Penn, Pete Yorn, R. Walt Vincent and the Matrix songwriting team.
Liz Phair
June 24, 2003
- 12th Floor, Capitol Records Building
- Decoy Studios (Studio City, California)
- Grandmaster
- House of Blues Studios (Encino, California)
- Master Control (North Hollywood, California)
- Mesmer Ave. Studios
- Sage & Sound
- Sonora Recorders
- Sunset Sound
- Third Stone Recording
50:14
Capitol
CDP 7243 5 22084 0 1
Liz Phair departed from Phair's earlier lo-fi sound for more polished pop production and songwriting. Phair said she wanted to earn more money from her work, and hired the Matrix, who had produced songs by pop acts including Britney Spears, the Backstreet Boys, Ricky Martin and Avril Lavigne. The Matrix co-wrote four songs, including the singles "Extraordinary" and "Why Can't I?".
Liz Phair debuted at #27 on the Billboard 200. "Why Can't I?" entered the Adult Top 40 and Hot Adult Contemporary charts, and its music video placed Phair in heavy rotation on VH1 for the first time. By July 2010, Liz Phair had sold 433,000 copies. It was certified gold in the US in 2018.
Liz Phair received mixed reviews, including negative reviews from the New York Times and Pitchfork, who both accused Phair of selling out and mimicking younger artists. It earned more positive reviews from The Village Voice and Rolling Stone. In 2019, the Pitchfork critic Matt LeMay apologized for his review, saying he had failed to appreciate Phair's willingness to try different approaches.
Background[edit]
Phair released her debut album, Exile in Guyville, in 1993. With a raw, lo-fi sound and "punk-feminist" lyrics, it was acclaimed by critics and was eventually certified gold. Her subsequent albums Whip-Smart (1994) and Whitechocolatespaceegg (1998) were less successful.[2]
In 1999, Phair's record label, Matador, was acquired by the major record label Capitol.[3][4] Phair said the acquisition complicated her work, as it meant she had to work with many more people, many of whom had different aims.[4] The Matador staff she had worked with left, leaving her under pressure at Capitol. Phair described seeing "manufactured" bands achieve success while she had no "indie-cool group" to advise her.[4] According to Phair, Andy Slater, the CEO of Capitol, told her: "I'm giving you a shot and if you don't take the shot, there's nothing much I can do for you."[4]
For her fourth album, Phair, now in her 30s, wanted to "feel more like an entrepreneur, not just a dumb artist", and be better rewarded for her work. She said: "I think with many artists there is a gambling spirit – just get out there and don't watch out for yourself – and I think it's a very unhealthy attitude to assume that you're not in business when you actually are."[2]
Recording[edit]
Phair worked with several producers, including the Matrix team, Michael Penn, Pete Yorn and Yorn's producer R. Walt Vincent.[2] Phair and Penn worked in the Capitol Records Building in Los Angeles.[5] Phair said in October 2001: "He places me in it so beautifully. He'll do things like get an industrial sound and replace it for a snare drum. It's one of the most intense-sounding things I've ever done."[5] Their collaboration ended as, according to Phair, "He tended to like my more serious stuff and he wouldn't let me make a fool of myself, and I really needed to make a little bit of a fool of myself."[6]
Searching for "more spontaneous stuff", Phair recruited the Matrix, who had created songs for pop acts including Britney Spears, the Backstreet Boys, Ricky Martin and Avril Lavigne.[2] Phair said she was envious of Lavigne's 2002 song "Complicated", and said: "How come I don't ever get to make songs that are blasted out of cars? That's one of the things I've always done my whole life is drive fast and play music loud."[6] The Matrix wrote and produced four songs with Phair: "Extraordinary", "Why Can't I?",[7] "Rock Me" and "Favorite".[8] Phair said they pushed her to sing different kinds of melodies: "It's top-of-the-line song structure, and it was really exciting to graft my DNA with theirs and to see what we came up with."[6]
Phair deliberated over whether to include the song "HWC", which stands for "hot white cum". She said she wrote it "completely sincerely ... I'm talking about being in love and having great sex." She said her female friends loved the song, but that "grown men had a lot of problems with it".[6]
Release[edit]
Liz Phair debuted at #27 on the Billboard 200.[9] The single "Why Can't I?" entered the Adult Top 40 and Hot Adult Contemporary charts, and its music video placed Phair in heavy rotation on VH1 for the first time.[2] By July 2010, Liz Phair had sold 433,000 copies.[10] It was certified gold in the United States on May 14, 2018, for sales of 500,000 copies.[11] The album included a download for an EP, Comeandgetit.[12]