Liz Phair checks angst and cynicism at the door

Liz Phair's new song, "Stuck on an Island," starts with the phrase, "When I was young."

Trouble from the offshoot.

See, I have been looking forward to Phair's new album, titled Whitechocolatespaceegg, since last February, when it was originally slated to come out. So, it's a year late (scheduled for Feb. '98). That's okay. She's an artist, temperamental, can't be pushed to create, isn't into the publicity/monetary assets of recording another album. (Right?) Fine. I can deal with that. I have no choice.

Okay, then there's this new song on the second disc of the "What's Up, Matador" compilation. She crashed the car. She's in deep shit. She's singing about it.

It's just not it. What I love about Phair is her intensity of experience and, yeah, her cynicism. I don't think she's a man-hater or part of the "angry young women" movement she was catagorized in. But I did see her as something I can't quite tag, maybe partially a product of Oberlin?

My big question about her forthcoming album is this: can Liz Phair be Liz Phair while married with a son?

In an article I read this Fall, she said she was fantasizing about what she wasn't living, using that as material for her songs. I think that's really influenced how this song feels. It sounds vaguely reminiscent of "Whipsmart," but is spacier, slower, emptier. And while it may be about a past experience, it doesn't ring true to Liz.

In recent interviews, she's been quoted as saying her upcoming album has "a more dreamy, weird sound quality." Her band is different, Brad Wood is not present, replaced by members of Beck's band and R.E.M.

It's probably not fair to hold Phair, or any artist, to a standard set in 1992. Even on Whipsmart there's no "Flower" or "Fuck and Run." She's grown up. She's 30. I'm 20. I'm still in Oberlin, angst capital of the Midwest. I guess I'm tuned to the cynical and bitter, the morose and unhappy. It's the trend here, for sure. Maybe I should look to Phair as inspiration that, 10 years after I leave, maybe I can grow out of this outlook too. And hopefully not be slandered for changing.