When Liz Phair Came Back

Attention Liz Phair fans: this collection of songs is a more radio-friendly version of her than past ventures. Consider the album before it, the adult contemporary-tinged Whitechoclatespaceegg, a lyrical wonderland that highlighted her perky approach to the plights of a daydreaming yet sensible woman. It seemed to make a weirdly unidentified gap between her debut and her latest. While his album still has her signature provocative lyrics, like in the first track, a power pop self- proclaiming song called "Extraordinary" in which she sings "see me licking my lips/ need a primitive fix," it's a bit Avril Lavigne-sounding.

This album came out mid-July 2003, with the single "Why Can't I" being plastered on VH-1 and featured on the soundtrack to Mandy Moore's teen comedy-drama "How to Deal," that hit theaters at the same time. I'll admit the song is far more simple, especially the chorus, than you might expect from her, yet its catchiness isn't annoying and her curse word of choice still isn't one you can allow on the mainstream radio.

She doesn't play much guitar on this album, which is unlike her, but nonetheless doesn't go against her on this one. Phair's 1993 debut album Exile in Guyville introduced her as an indie princess, scoring praise for simple but asphyxiating songs such as "F--- and Run." She then failed to dazzle critics and most fans alike with the bland Whipsmart, though it did have some firecracker moments, such as with the song "Supernova," which is probably the best remembered song from it.

On "H.W.C.," a song that refers to the beauty help a gal can get from...well I better not say, she recruited rocker Pete Yorn on drums. Newly divorced and a mother of one, Phair seems excited to proclaim, such as in "Love/Hate Transmission," "I grew up thinking/what's good for one oppresses the other/it's my turn, my life, my way, my way, mine, me." On "Rock Me," Phair insists that it doesn't matter the young guy she's into doesn't even know who she is, she just wants to play XBOX on his floor. Most of the songs are about the opposite sex, but a standout is "Little Digger, about her son's reaction to her dating men other than his father, with the lyrics "My mother is mine."

"My Favorite Underwear" compares a man to her undergarment she holds dear, simply saying "Faded pink now but it used to be red/starting to fray at the seams/but I know that you still love me like you did," with the crunch of the guitar adding to the twinkle in her eye.

Some critics have disparaged her new embrace of the mainstream; pointing out her help from---what do you know-- Avril Lavigne's debut album producer team The Matrix and commenting that it makes her seem pathetic and pithy. However, if you give it a chance, you'd realize it's genuinely fun and catchy. I wouldn't put it down with the Avrils of the world, Liz still has her raunchy-mama way about her And there really isn't a reason to cut it down because your indie-cred friend might not approve.