#56 Liz Phair, 'Exile in Guyville' (1993)

Previously #327

The debut record by Liz Phair is seriously punching above its weight. Surely it would have had to have been voted #1 on one or two judges’ lists to make it this high up. Phair herself sums it up perfectly with her response to its reception on release: “don't really get what happened with Guyville. It was so normal, from my side of things. It was nothing remarkable, other than the fact that I'd completed a big project, but I'd done that before... Being emotionally forthright was the most radical thing I did. And that was taken to mean something bigger in terms of women's roles in society and women's roles in music... I just wanted people who thought I was not worth talking to, to listen to me.” The album is loosely a track-by-track reply to The Rolling Stones’ ‘Exile On Main St.’ Honestly, a reply to a question that no one asked.

To be clear, the album is fine. I actually did feel it reminded me of The Stones at times. The best song on the record is ‘Never Said,’ which happens to be the first single. A great little early ‘90s indie jam which would correlate with The Stones’ ‘Tumbling Dice,’ also a great song. I guess Phair does well to keep the pacing of her album in line with The Stones’. At 18 songs and 55 minutes, it overstayed its welcome a bit.

#rs500albums