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ALBUMMER! 45: Liz Phair's self-titled

Today on Albummer! the gang takes a look at Liz Phair's 2003 self-titled album which frankly, kicks ass. Why did it get notoriously harsh reviews from several huge publications upon its release? Oh yeah, sexism!

The crew behind Two Minutes to Late Night are here to re-review some of the most critically reviled albums out there!

Jul. 6 2022

Posted by: JERF

24 Comments

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homogenic

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Albummer’s first Jaime sighting

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permanentsigh

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Edited By permanentsigh

Publications weren't phair to this album.

Alcummer.

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Googly

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White hot cum.

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threeOCT

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Edited By threeOCT

I think I recall a couple songs from this album and thinking it was just typical pop music fare (heh) that showed up in commercials and the like. I had no idea it was thought of as a deathknell, even though I only slight knew 'Exile in Guyville' was held up so loftily.

Honestly, most of my recent knowledge of Liz Phair has come from a YT video that talked about a later album she did. There are some... interesting tracks in Liz Phair's Funstyle.

EDIT: Nelly Furtado's "Loose" is a fucking fantastic album and I'll punch anyone who says otherwise in the goddamn face.

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superjoe

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Sticky this episode to the homepage with white, hot HTML

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mrangryface

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I thought it was ok but its definitely the least proactive of her stuff

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AlanMcKinnon

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Edited By AlanMcKinnon
@superjoe said:

Sticky this episode to the homepage with white, hot HTML

You know I love it when you markdown on me

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Sen0r_Awes0me

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Cum to my Gb window

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seveword

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Love the husbando sighting, not because "omg famous person" but as a reminder that at some point, no matter who you are, you're just gonna have to do some shit in the backyard

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rayne117

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Edited By rayne117

@homogenic:

No he was in one before near the beginning of the episode, Emily looked really surprised or maybe annoyed to me that he randomly appeared on camera

Drew Cumfman

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pluckylump

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Abortion is a human right. Hot ropes.

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FifiChiaPet

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This is the only album on this program that I've actually heard all the way through. Always loved it.

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stise

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Why Can't I was the only Liz Phair song I had heard prior to this episode, so thanks to this show for bringing to my attention the fact that Liz Phair's entire catalogue fucking rules.

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nd3141

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This is probably of the late examples of professional criticism really affecting an artist. After the NYT and Pitchfork reviews, a lot of her fan base just piled on for hipster points and turned on her. I liked the self titled album a lot but got some old school online flak for it. She went uncool in certain circles fast.

That strained the hell out of the relationship with the label (basically killed her deal after a management shift) who saw her fans as now toxic and taking away sales. She was dropped later, essentially for not making a "clear platinum record" even hit gold. She famously just lost it on Fun Style, a truly awful record full of never should made it off the demo tape tracks with insider rants about label hacks and who knows what else and just disappeared for a while. Some thought she wouldn't record new material again, but she did in 2021 (a good record as well).

Anyway, this is a solid rock record with some damn fine songs and songs like H.W.C., a unapologetic ode about a straight woman enjoying some down to earth, nothing fancy, properly dirty, hot sex with a guy still able to annoy or shock the truly deserving people who try to place women's sexuality in convenient to them, who cares what she wants anyway, boxes or cages.

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MilkABadChoice

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Edited By MilkABadChoice

I think Jeremy's point about unscored reviews is pretty much how I wish all reviews would be (though I have absolutely been guilty of going on Metacritic and scraping the recommendations from the top when on the lookout for new media), and I think slash hope most professional reviewers have stopped the weird, deep attacks that targeted the person instead of the production/project that plagued some sites during the 00's-10s.

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Virtual_Balboa

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I find it interesting that this podcast keeps bringing up Pitchfork. Back in the day I considered reading Pitchfork as a character flaw. I forget who said it during the Jet episode, but the writers always came off like they were more concerned with self promotion than anything music related.

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empanic

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@virtual_balboa: we bring up pitchfork because they were undeniable taste makers and highly influential in the industry for years. They notably gave Liz Phair and JET 0.0 scores at the height of their influence so it is relevant to the discussion particularly for those two records.

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Virtual_Balboa

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@empanic: That was my bad. I committed the cardinal sin of commenting before finishing the entire show.

Seemed like everyone addressed my point by the end, and much better than I did as well.

Hope I didn’t come home off as an ass!

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empanic

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Edited By empanic

@virtual_balboa: no we're cool but you're def not getting into heaven now :(

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spatsa

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Knowing nothing about this show and literally working backwards from the last 6 episodes, I was surprised and happy seeing people coming to this album's defense. However, memories of sitting on the bus in college listening to a song about cum on repeat still fills me with mixed emotions.

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PeterAB

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Who'd have thought an episode with so many cum jokes would also have one of the most thoughtful discussions I've ever heard about the nature and value of reviews. It got me thinking of Gerstmann's incredible "8/10" "review" of Halo Infinite which basically turned into a eulogy, of sorts, for the whole concept of definitively answering the question "Should I buy this?" I think the discussion here matches up with that piece nicely, in a weird way.