I’ll admit, I have no idea what to think of this. Did anybody even know Liz Phair had a new album coming out? This is quite a departure in the sounds we’ve come to expect from Ms. Phair and I can’t decide whether it’s mad or brilliant (or brilliantly mad).
My 9-year-old just heard me listening to this and asked, “Who is this? Do you know her? I don’t like it” and then proceeded to surf to YouTube and pull up some dancey pop-rock song.
If this song floats your boat, you can buy the entire digital CD for $5.99 on Liz’s site by clicking “Get it Now”.
It reminds me a lot of Jewel’s trying-too-hard satire “Intuition”. It’s not the first time Liz Phair has said fuck you to “good taste”, and that’s kind of why I’m a huge fan of hers. Still, I’m wary of an album full of music industry woes. Isn’t that exactly what she said she tried to avoid on “Whip-Smart”? It’s a little too on the nose, so I’m hoping the rest of “Funstyle” still has some classic singer-songwriter moments that somewhat redeemed the tail ends of “Liz Phair” and “Somebody’s Miracle”.
I’m told this was an intended-to-be-shelved false start that she decided to release online while everyone waits for the “real” album to be finished.
At least half of the tracks feature her frustration at Hollywood, labels and fans who want endless regurgitations of Exile.
It is interesting in that it highlights both how much of the last two albums were her, and not her label (a lot of the instrumentation sounds very similar), and how much they weren’t. (There’s a lot of kookiness here, as hasn’t been seen in full effect since at least “whitechocolatespaceegg.”)
While it’s not the best album ever, it definitely feels like we’re getting to hear her, and not what some A&R guy packaged up, and that’s a real improvement.