Exile in Guyville Review

Liz Phair forged a wholly original musical persona when she emerged from the male-dominated Chicago indie scene in the early Nineties. A gen-x Joni Mitchell, she took full ownership of her role as a woman in love and sexual warfare, while making it plain she wasn't averse to the kind of deviant fun Jagger, Prince, and a whole slew of other horny cockrockers had growled about having for years.

This comely co-ed, this girl-next-door armed with a sultry, Stevie Nicks swagger in her voice and Keith Richards-style riffs was a revelation to any guy who'd ever fantasized about the modest smart girl in class being a secret superfreak in bed.

Supposedly a song-for-song reply to the Rolling Stones' Exile On Main Street (at least in terms of pacing if not strict dialogue), Exile In Guyville distinguished itself as Phair's debut from the pack of Riot Girrrls and Suzanne Vega/Indigo Girls-style folk albums which had come to almost exclusively define the female point-of-view in rock. It would be too simple to say she merely blended the two divergent approaches, though not completely inaccurate. The rock was easy and inventive simultaneously -- a feat rarely achieved by an artist ever since the Beatles patched together the White Album. The understated drive and plainspoken despair of "Fuck and Run" was put across with tuneful, 60's girl-group innocence. "Never Said" suggested a high school house party vibe. Songs like "Johnny Sunshine" and the raunchy "Flower" defied easy musical categorization, but weren't so avant-garde as to miss the aural pleasure centers.

Liz Phair's career may not have reached the commercial heights of subsequent cerebral sex godesses like Alanis Morrissette and Fiona Apple, but with this one album she declared herself a rocker in the proudest tradition of Patti Smith, Chrissie Hynde, and, well, Jagger-Richards.

Buy this at:

www.amazon.com/Exile-Guyville-Liz-Phair/dp/B000040JF0

www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=7687363

www.pricegrabber.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=602511301

www.emusic.com/album/Liz-Phair-Exile-in-Guyville-MP3-Download/11230837.html

music.aol.com/artist/liz-phair/1032403