Liz Phair: Whitechocolatespaceegg CD Track Listing

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Liz Phair Whitechocolatespaceegg (1998)
Originally Released August 11, 1998 \n\nAMG EXPERT REVIEW: Following the halfhearted reception to Whip-Smart -- good enough to retain her critical stature, not good enough to enhance it -- Liz Phair slowly retreated from view, marrying and having a child. Toward the end of 1996, she began to work on her third album, but it took her nearly a year and a half to compete it, due to a variety of reasons. When whitechocolatespaceegg (a reference to her baby boy's shiny bald head) finally appeared in late summer 1998, it had been a full five years since Exile in Guyville, and nowhere was that more apparent than in Phair's third album itself. Certain familiar elements remained -- her plain vocals, strummed guitars, and character songs -- but this was a brighter, cleaner, more content Phair. There was none of the emotional turmoil that underpinned Exile and, to a lesser extent, Whip-Smart. Even if the songs concerned violent emotions, there is a studied distance between her and the songs here, whether it's the character study "Uncle Alvarez" or "Johnny Feelgood," where the female narrator is beaten up and likes it. In other words, whitechocolatespaceegg is the work of a craftsman, not an inspired work of brilliance like Exile. And while that may alienate some hardcore fans, that's not necessarily a bad thing, especially since the best moments -- "Big Tall Man," "Baby Got Going," "Go On Ahead," "What Makes You Happy," "Johnny Feelgood," and the Girlysound leftover "Shitloads of Money" -- are tuneful and literate. Still, there's a distance, not only in the lyrics but in the overly polished music, that makes whitechocolatespaceegg difficult to embrace unconditionally, even if it may be a stronger record than Whip-Smart. -- Stephen Thomas Erlewine\n\nAmazon.com Editorial Review\nLiz Phair's Exile in Guyville proved that a debutante-attractive woman rocker singing about oral sex could earn the attention of the mostly male rock press corps. But Whitechocolatespaceegg confirms--much as her second album, Whip-Smart, attempted--that Phair can be a pop tunesmith as well. Her songs snap and crackle with giddy doses of '80s new wave, Buddy Holly pop, and Stones rock; her husky voice mostly overcomes its previous, potentially off-putting wobble. And while the clangy "Johnny Feelgood" recalls Phair's earlier tough-sex scenarios, "Polyester Bride," which eavesdrops on a conversation between an advice-giving bartender and a wide-eyed female patron (maybe this season's answer to Semisonic's "Closing Time"), is more demonstrative of Whitechocolatespaceegg's thematic maturation: less titillating but no less womanly. And no less feisty. --Neal Weiss \n\nRolling Stone\nInstruments twang out of tune, strings and frets squeak with each chord change, and Phair's tenuous, conversational singing voice ... explores the dynamics of marital endurance. \n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nTransition, July 21, 2005\nReviewer: Michael Stack (Watertown, MA USA)\n\nLiz Phair's third album, the oddly titled "whitechocolatespaceegg", continued her transition from alt-rock queen to alt-pop queen. Whereas "Whip-Smart" kept the same sort of feel as "Exile in Guyville" but without the lo-fi production value, "whitechocolatespaceegg" begins the brightening of her sound that would finish on her self-titled release. \n\nLike "Whip-Smart", this album feels like a transition piece, its inconsistent, falls between a number of different styles, and all-in-all doesn't make for a totally satisfying listen. The problem is that Phair seems unassured in her new direction, and several tracks reach back to her old alt-rock sound, but with the clean production, they come off as largely inauthentic. While "Johnny Feelgood" finds its way around this problem (by being a superb song), several tracks ("Big Tall Man", "Headache") don't make it. \n\nThe remainder of the album mixes somewhat overproduced pop songs ("White Chocolate Space Egg") with bizarre, but generally superb acoustic-guitar driven pop songs ("Polyester Bride", "Uncle Alvarez"). \n\nWhile its neither the masterpiece that her debut was nor the pop triumph that her self-titled album would be, "whitechocolatespaceegg" has its moments, and is definitely worth a listen.\n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nUnderappreciated alternative-pop gem, April 16, 2005\nReviewer: M. McM "AOTT-TMF" (Los Angeles, CA)\nLiz Phair's best album remains EXILE IN GUYVILLE (1993), but for those of you looking for something more lush and tuneful, I'd recommend this one. It strikes a perfect balance between Phair's earlier, groundbreaking work and the pop concessions of her recent self-titled album, LIZ PHAIR (2003). Unlike her recent work, these are not 'concessions'; the polished production complements her songs perfectly instead of embalming them, and more importantly, this is a strong set of songs - the melodies are more engaging, but the words remain sharp as ever. \n\nAlmost everything was written by Ms. Phair herself, without a single hack tunesmith mucking up her work. Phair is more than capable of writing great, tuneful, catchy songs - "Johnny Feelgood" swaggers with a strut worthy of the Rolling Stones, "What Makes You Happy" should've been a hit - and her first-person, observational songs remain sharp as ever. The girl singing "What Makes You Happy" tries to prove her boyfriend's worthiness to her mother, but underneath the surface, she's really fighting her own doubts. On "Polyester Bride," when a girl sinks under her brief moments of loneliness (and begins to doubt single life), her male, bartender friend replies sarcastically yet sympathetically in order to set her mind at ease. On "Uncle Alvarez," the singer is tired of the banalities of her domestic life, and filters her frustration through the imagined life of a dead relative. In "Go On Ahead," a girl tells her husband goodbye as he goes off to some unnamed event, and during that brief moment, the girl takes a good, hard look at her marriage, sitting precariously at a crossroads where some days they're closer than ever, and others they're dead to each other, and she has no idea where the balance will ultimately shift. "Sh*tloads of Money" filters a neglected 'Girlysound' demo (from her hungry-artist days) through her newfound status as indie-queen and cuts apart old indie-cred cliches. On "Girls' Room," she finds something timeless out of an ordinary, schoolgirl gossip session. \n\nThe album has a large number of collaborators, including R.E.M. (minus Michael Stipe) on "Fantasize," famed producer Scott Litt on half of the tracks, and future Wilco member Leroy Bach (who makes key contributions on tracks like "Uncle Alvarez"). To their credit, they never overwhelm the music. \n\nFinally, the album's uncharacteristically rich and intricate production makes this the most listenable album Phair's ever produced. Even a lesser track like "Headache" is not without its charm - it's graced by a Devo-like synth part that's both obtuse and catchy. Everything is done to a tasteful degree, and the music never gets too glossy, like it does on the recent LIZ PHAIR. \n\nIt's a shame WHITECHOCOLATESPACEEGG didn't find the chart success it deserved, and a greater shame some fans actually dismissed it for being too 'poppy.' Had this been the work of an unknown artist, it would've been hailed as a break-through. As of this writing, a number of used copies are going for less than $2, but as a mid-priced album, it's very affordable as a new CD and well worth the money. This album deserves a second look.\n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nIt's a Shame It's Her Worst-Selling Record..., June 21, 2004\nReviewer: Rudy Palma "The Writing Fiend" (NJ)\n\nAfter an extensive break, having a son and getting divorced, "Whitechocolatespaceegg," which arrived at #35 on Billboard's Top 200 albums chart, surprised many Liz Phair fans in summer of 1998. Though its tongue-in-cheek lead single "Polyester Bride," didn't see the success that her breakthrough single, 2003's "Why Can't I?" (which entered the Hot 100 September 11, 2003 at #76, eventually peaking at #32, her first and thus far only Top 40 hit) had, one thing was clear: She could create songs that were easy to listen to and difficult to turn off...that's right...POP MUSIC! :::Gasp:::\nEven though this is extremely far from the slickly-produced but excellent self-titled album from last year, this is essentially its foreshadower; "Liz Phair" took the formula of this album and amplified it. Indeed, with "Whip-Smart" back in 1994, she proved with songs like "Jealousy" and "Supernova," her first song to make the Hot 100 (#78), that she could stick to guns; pushing the envelope with themes that near-completely dealt with sex while still crafting radio-worthy fare. "Whitechocolatespaceegg" is far more mainstream than anything she released previously, but it walks the balance beam between indieville and Top 40 land carefully; in fact, perhaps too carefully, which could explain why it has been her least-embraced release.\n\nFrom the opening title track, which many agree is in reference to her then baby son, to the awkward "Girls Room," this album is a mix bag of different infectious styles that without a doubt has at least one song to please every listener. "Big Tall Man" is a hilarious, extremely catchy tune likely inspired by her ex-husband, while "Love Is Nothing" and "Johnny Feelgood," melodically, sound like something you'd hear after popping a coin into a jukebox in a 50's-style restaurant. Other tracks, like "Go On Ahead" are lyrically reminiscent of "Exile In Guyville" in their examination of relationships, while the likes of others such as "What Makes You Happy" or "Baby Got Going" are so downright catchy that it's a true shame they didn't mark Phair's arrival at mainstream radio. The lyrics to the former are sung so perfectly; she gets an A+ for the acting job: "But mom, I'm sending you this photograph/I swear this one is gonna to last/And all those other bastards were only practice". How can you not love this woman?\n\nAlthough it is her least successful record, "Whitechocolatespaceegg," with its sing-along choruses and insightful lyrics (and at times appropriate lack thereof) deserves a second chance.\n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nAnd they lived happily ever after. Maybe., November 22, 2000\nReviewer: Beau Yarbrough (Hesperia, CA)\nI'm a lucky guy: I discovered Liz Phair's classic "Exile in Guyville" when I, like Liz, was a single, looking for that one great relationship and commitment. Her songs of pain and longing and hope spoke to me like few albums ever have.\nAnd once I'd found that relationship, and was months from getting engaged, outcame the long-awaited -- and worth the wait -- "whitechocolatespaceegg," which talks about what "Happily Ever After" really constitutes. As the song says, "Love is Nothing Like They Say."\n\nWe get the vintage Liz Phair trippy lyrics -- "the Russian Army marchin' through my head" -- pottymouth talk and unflinchingly sharp look at relationships, through good times and bad. But Liz changes it up, with bouncy kid-friendly songs, wistful bar-ready tunes, and just plain silliness. Her lyrics are sometimes more accessible, sometimes much denser, but clearly the product of an artist who has grown both in her craft and personally since she recorded a legendary set of tunes on a four track in college.\n\n"Whitechocolatespaceegg," in many ways, is the perfect companion to "Exile in Guyville." It's what comes next. The princess has found her prince, and now has to figure out what the rest of her life is like. She remains a sexual, complicted being with ambitions and desires and, most of all intelligence.\n\nThis is the soundtrack for the young turk (male or female) who has grown up but not forgotten how rock and roll can speak to you and provide insight and richness to life. An instant classic.\n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nliz, domesticated variety, August 4, 2000\nReviewer: "doloreshaze" (Gambier, Ohio USA)\nWorshipping Liz Phair is probably the closest I come to religion, but with that said I have to admit that there are some real stinkers on this album. It pains me to say this, but I think Liz did her best work in front of a 4-track in her dorm room, and though she's had flashes of brilliance since then that far outshine any artist she's been compared to, she still can't top those pure, raw, unproduced inspirations. I hope all the Liz fans out there can get their hands on girlysounds and other non-album recordings. This album is of course still worth buying but for god's sake perma-skip the title track and the kitchy "polyester bride." (About that song...I have this fantasy of Liz sitting in the office of some fat cat music exec who's holding her album and saying, " Nice try Ms. Phair...but now could you go into the studio and record a radio-friendly hit?" In the fantasy Liz doesn't want to cave so she records PB as sort of a joke, like, 'As if i can really write and sing a song this badly!') The upside is that Liz still has the most honest voice in modern music, and that alone is worth the price of admission.\n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nI'm hooked on Liz, September 3, 1999\nReviewer: A music fan\nI just discovered Liz Phair and find her music as overwhelming as the Dead and the Airplane were to me 30 years ago. It's interesting that she evokes the same kind of reactions as the best of the cutting-edge rockers of the late 60s -- either you love her or hate her, there's no in-between. My favorite Liz lyric: "It's nice to be liked, but it's better by far to be paid."\n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nWhip Smart and Happy, October 25, 1998\nReviewer: A music fan\nMet whip smart first -- smitten. Juvenile raw yet sharp-smart and lyrical. Wow. fit my mood like a glove. Then Exile. Shit this chick's smart sexy...appropriately ornery...but vulnerable...and writing her own rules. I'm in awe now. WCSE?...have to admit I was scared. Heard she'd gotten happiness...married, a young'un. Figured it out. Well, sure sounds like it...this one's way happier. Not as edgy. Helen Reddy even creeps in! But after few listens I'm more in love than ever. Liz -- you sound great, your writing's richer and more complex...and if you keep coming up with bits like WMYH I'll always be at the front of your line. Newbies -- buy everything and get ready to wear out your disk spinner.\n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nAs confused as the title; Liz runs on empty, August 23, 1998\nReviewer: A music fan\nI remember thinking after I first heard "Guyville" that she would never top it. "Whip Smart" was good, but a let down. This, I fear, is just a let down. And worse yet, it's where Liz becomes what we always feared she would: the whiny spoiled rich kid suburban indie rocker brat. With lines like "Should I bother dating unfamous men" and "Better send some money to the Alma Mater" or "All these babies are born to the wrong kind of people" and "It's nice to be liked but it's better by far to be paid" delivered without so much as even a hint of irony, how can anyone relate or care about this except maybe Eddie Vedder or the Smashing Pumpkins? Liz is too good to deliver a completely worthless album, but for me this is only redeemed by "Johnny Feelgood" (a throwback to "Guyville") and "Ride." The rest just seems like bored experimentation to figure out what to do next. And anytime you have to call out R.E.M. to breathe some life into your album, you know you're in trouble. Tell us Liz, just who are the wrong kind of people, and do you want them to buy this sorry cd to help you make sh*tloads of money? I'm sorry I did.\n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nLiz Phair on having babies and husbands, August 22, 1998\nReviewer: A music fan\nThis record is unfortunately hard to review without using Exile in Guyville as a standard. Five years after that masterpiece, Liz seems to be trying to transcend her indie roots (as evidenced by the lyrics to both "Polyester Bride" and "Shitloads of Money"), without alienating her core hipster audience. The result is frightening -- the new Liz is a Liz who takes advice from a guy bartender (who tell her she's lucky to even know him and calls her "princess," to boot!); sings about getting knocked around by some guy and liking it; and, worse of all, in the snoozer "Go On Ahead," makes commitment and motherhood seem about as exciting as a stay in a rest home. Overall, there are about six good songs on this record - "Fantasize," a clever, half-mumbled ode to a forbidden love, is among the best - but the other ten are almost indigestible.\n\n\nHalf.com Details \nContributing artists: Bill Berry, Mike Mills, Peter Buck, Scott McCaughey \n\nAlbum Notes\nPersonnel: Liz Phair (vocals, guitar, piano); Scott Litt (acoustic guitar, violin, harmonica, keyboards, bass, drums, programming, background vocals); Brad Wood (guitar, organ, keyboards, bass, drums, hand claps, drum programming, background vocals); John Hiler (guitar, piano, organ, keyboards, programming, loops, background vocals); Jason Chasko (guitar, piano, bass, drums, background vocals); Scott Bennett (guitar, organ, bass, drums); Ed Tinley (guitar, hand claps); Nathan December, Peter Buck, Scott McCaughey (guitar); Troy Niedhart (accordion); Randy Wilson (keyboards, programming); LeRoy Bach (acoustic bass); Tommy Furar, Mike Mills (bass); Bill Berry (bongos).\n\nProducers: Brad Wood, Jason Chasko, Scott Litt, Liz Phair.\nEngineers include: Ed Tinley, Blaise Barton, Brad Wood.\n\nLiz Phair's third full-length album comes four years after her previous work, and it is inevitable that the singer-songwriter who redefined women's boundaries within the form is in a different stage of her life. She has, in the meantime, gotten married, had a child and, ostensibly, settled down and reflected. Thus, introspection defines the WHITECHOCOLATESPACEEGG Liz Phair--less confrontation and more examination is the maturing motto. No longer looking to put horny little indie-rock males down with sinister, well-chosen observations, she's examining her own desires ("Perfect World"), her life-giving experiences ("Only Son") and familial priorities ("Uncle Alvarez").\nStill, rest assured that Phair hasn't gone completely VH-1. SPACEEGG has more of a visceral off-the-cuff kick than the Sheryl Crows of the world will ever muster. The Mick Taylor-era Stones are still the main musical reference--particularly on "Johnny Feelgood," a four-on-the-floor ode to a roughneck the narrator can't forget, cooing "I like it" at the thought of his bad-boy ways--but there's also a stab at weirdo analog synth-pop ("Headache") and a full-on blues boogie ("Baby Got Going") that's infectious in its simplicity. These are the sounds of Phair's diversification as an artist.\n\nIndustry Reviews\n4 Stars (out of 5) - ...The softer songs...are engagingly intimate....The harder, more upbeat numbers are playful and pop-y, with just enough dry humor to keep them from floating away....WHITECHOCOLATESPACEEGG explores the dynamics of marital endurance...\nRolling Stone Magazine (08/20/1998)\n\n6 (out of 10) - ...Phair's lyrics appear to have been retooled for mass consumption, too--the fucking and blowjob vignettes displaced by a series of marriage and parenthood/chilhood references. This 'maturity' isn't a surprising development...\nSpin (09/01/1998)\n\n3 out of 5 - ...these 16 songs still have enough melody, attitude and wit to make Alanis Morisette and her ilk sound like whiny brats.\nQ (04/01/1999)\n\n...Even when the music stomps around and Phair turns cheeky, she is, at heart, something of a sentimentalist....Ultimately, she's closer in spirit to brainiac singer-songwriters like Paul Simon or Joni Mitchell than to any of the idiosyncratic bands with whom she shares a record label... - Rating: A-\nEntertainment Weekly (08/14/1998)\n\n...WHITECHOCOLATESPACEEGG is easily the Liz Phair set least rhythmically soulful....the Phairest songs here are about relationships with men...\nVibe (10/01/1998)\n\n\nROLLING STONE REVIEW\nIn 1993 a twenty-six-year-old Liz Phair burned her image onto the post-feminist landscape with Exile in Guyville, an album that perfectly captured the experiences of young women stranded between puberty and adulthood. Phair herself embodied the contradictions of contemporary chickdom: She cursed sexism while reveling in her own sexuality, acted tough but suffered from debilitating stage fright.\n\nThe five years since have been frenetic for Phair in ways that have nothing -- and everything -- to do with her music. After releasing 1994's smoother Whip Smart, Phair caught the first bus out of Guyville, got married and gave birth to a son. Now she's back with her long-awaited third album, but Exile-era Phair fans beware: Mama's got a brand-new bag. Ever the confessional songwriter, Phair continues to write her life, and right now her life centers around one guy and the baby boy whose bald head quite possibly inspired her new album's title.\n\nWhile most indie rockers are beefing up their sound with gratuitous electronic gadgetry, Whitechocolatespaceegg opts for a more tactile sound. Instruments twang out of tune, strings and frets squeak with each chord change, and Phair's tenuous, conversational singing voice takes the occasional half-octave nose dive. The softer songs, most of them produced by Scott Litt, are engagingly intimate, as though Phair had curled up on your couch, guitar in hand, to share a little tale or two. The harder, more upbeat numbers are playful and pop-y, with just enough dry humor to keep them from floating away.\n\nAs always with Phair, it's the lyrics that tell the real story. Where Guyville graphed the disintegration of love in tracks such as "Divorce Song," Whitechocolatespaceegg explores the dynamics of marital endurance. The presumably autobiographical "Go on Ahead" ponders the strain put on a marriage by childbirth ("One night is lovely, the next is brutal/And you and I are in way over our heads with this one"). In granting her mate the freedom to "go on ahead," Phair reaffirms her matrimonial bond with the simplest of troths: "I believe we have things to do/I believe in myself, and I believe in you."\n\nThis doesn't mean that Phair is free of internal conflicts, however. On the quiet, lilting "Perfect World," she confesses to still wanting an impossible array of superwomanish attributes: "I want to be cool, tall, vulnerable and luscious." Nor has she lost her taste for sexual danger -- "Johnny Feelgood" and "Love Is Nothing" show that she doesn't mind getting roughed up a little, if necessary. Most telling are the tracks in which she sorts out the present by sifting through her past: "Shitloads of Money" updates a cut from her early Girly Sound tapes with the added perspective of a pop star; the breezy, rocking "Headache" turns Guyville's "Fuck and Run" inside out as the song's protagonist tells a potential paramour, "You can take me home/But I will never be your girl." On "Polyester Bride," Phair the wife revisits her tumultuous teenage self, asking her (via another character), "Do you want to be a polyester bride?/Or do you want to hang your head and die?.../Do you want to flap your wings and fly away from here?"\n\nPhair's younger fans may not be able to relate to the world according to mom. But years from now, they may well hoard copies of Whitechocolatespaceegg and marvel at its prescient insights into their post-hipster lives. By then, of course, Phair will have reared her space egg and traded in her empty nest for an RV and the open highway, her stereo cranked up as she belts out a host of pre-menopausal anthems. And those of us still flailing in the deserts of Guyville will wave our hats as she passes, cheering, "You go, old girl." (RS 793 - Jul 30, 1998) -- NEVA CHONIN
This rock cd contains 16 tracks and runs 51min 21sec.
Freedb: e20c0710
Buy: from Amazon.com

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