Hi there! Steelrattus again, on day 4 of his 10 day guest stint.
Today’s album is Exile in Guyville by Liz Phair. This is another of the majority albums that I don’t know, so for those in the same boat let me edumacate you. Liz Phair first hit the music scene in 1991, when she was 24, distributing tapes under the name Girly Sound. After a failed disagreement with a label over the style of her music she signed in 1992 with Matador. She began the process of recording, and the album was released in 1993. The album cover is a cropped topless photo of Phair, taken in a photo booth. From what I can understand, Guyville refers to the sort of sexist small towns where men are very much in charge. Phair says she lived in a number of such places, and presumably felt she did not fit in.
I’ve listened to the album, and it’s somewhat reminiscent of Alanis Morissette, Suzanne Vega, Tori Amos etc. Albeit Morissette was first active a couple of years after this. It has a fairly consistent stripped back sound, and therefore sounds pretty similar throughout. It didn’t really hook me though, and bounced somewhere between a 1 and 2/5. The album was critically acclaimed though, and has sold over half a million copies, so YMMV.
Phair didn’t release any singles from the album, so here’s the opening track…
Stegzy's Music Project 