Liz Phair, "Exile in Guyville"
Don takes us on a trip to Guyville
Don’s Pitch:
John Lennon met Yoko Ono in 1966 at one of her art shows. Among the displays, in the middle of the room, was a step ladder that reached almost to the ceiling. Few approached it because it seemed the ladder itself was the installation. But Lennon climbed to the top, where he found a magnifying glass. He held it to the ceiling, revealing a tiny painting with one word that was invisible from the floor: “YES.” He was smitten, and his interest in The Beatles began its descent.
27 years later, in 1993, another female artist came out of nowhere to shatter rock-and-roll’s glass ceiling. It’s not an overstatement that Liz Phair’s Exile In Guyville elevated “Indie Rock” to new heights while tearing down the ‘60’s other Mt. Rushmore band - The Rolling Stones - with a not-quite-literal, song-by-song feminist response to their masterpiece, Exile on Main Street.
Guyville is an 18-track epic that takes a few spins to fully appreciate. Like the best women, it’s delicate and powerful. It teases you, cuts through the bullshit and - in the end - is riveting. You can’t take your ears off it.
The arrangements are sparsely produced, emphasizing Phair’s inimitable vocal phrasing, delivered with a deadpan nonchalance that feels simultaneously intimate and detached. It’s her secret weapon, allowing her to get away with shocking lyrics and themes.
If you haven’t heard it yet, put it this way: she uses (multiple times) most of the words George Carlin joked couldn’t be said on TV. Meanwhile, tunes such as “Glory” and “Flower” would make the after-midnight 1990s Skin-a-Max programmers blush.
But while song titles like “Fuck and Run” drew the headlines, less sexy numbers like “Divorce Song” - ironically the bounciest tune on the record - best capture Phair’s trademark, blunt honesty (“When you said that I wasn't worth talking to / I had to take your word on that”).
Nearly every song has similarly clever lyrics. “Fuck and Run” opens with “I woke up alarmed.” And even the most radio-friendly anthem, “Never Said,” with it’s simple, repeating chorus, includes this great third verse:
So don’t look at me sideways
Don’t even look me straight on
And don’t look at my hands in my pockets, baby
I ain’t done anything wrong
Phair seemingly shrugs off her male-dominated surroundings throughout the record, but her vulnerable vocal in “Divorce Song” betrays how much it must have hurt before she found her voice.
Along the way, there are plenty of instrumental cock-rock moments to keep the guys entranced, even if they aren’t hearing the words: the harmonica riff in “Divorce Song; the Stones-y opening maracas and guitar riff in “Mesmerizing”; the garage rock of “6’1”; and the bassline of “Stratford-On-Guy.”
I listened to Exile in Guyville several times this past week. Does it deserve its place on the critics’ lists of greatest rock albums of the 1990s?
Hell YES.
CJ’s Response:
My first job out of college was at a small ad agency in Providence, R.I. It was 1992 and the indie music scene was riding grunge’s coattails into the spotlight. In addition to some spectacular sandwich shops, Providence is home to one of the best college radio stations in the nation—Brown University’s WBRU. Driving through the streets of my adopted city, my car radio seldom left BRU’s 95.5FM frequency because they were playing emerging artists before anyone else had even considered them. It was BRU that introduced me to the powerful female voices of Throwing Muses, Lisa Loeb, Veruca Salt, Juliana Hatfield and Don’s selection, Liz Phair.
Songs from Exile in Guyville—the ones they could play without violating FCC regulations—were in heavy rotation on BRU. I distinctly remember hearing “Never Said” and “Stratford-On-Guy” as I made my way to Geoff’s for a Juggs sandwich with extra cranberry sauce. Hearing them again 25+ years later was just as exciting as experiencing them the first time.
It was equally fun to rediscover songs like “Fuck and Run”, “6’1”” and “Glory” that the hippest people in our agency would play when we got together to drink after work. But, if I had to choose a favorite song on the album it would be “Mesmerizing”. For me, this is where Exile reaches terminal velocity. It also kicks off the second half of the album, which is much stronger than the first half. “Divorce Song”, “Shatter”, “Johnny Sunshine”, it’s all really good.
If there’s one thing that’s keeping me from straight up loving this album it’s that Phair is so atonal at times that I wish she were speaking those razor sharp lyrics to me instead of singing them. For the record, though, if any woman sang, spoke or wrote “Flower” to me when I was 22, I probably would’ve paid her rent for a year.
Pitch Successful
Mitch’s Response:
The coolest thing about Exile on Newbury St. is that it forces us to confront our musical blindspots and I must confess that Exile in Guyville is one of my blindspots. I’ve been well aware of Liz Phair since the '90s. I followed her career and understood her importance as a figure in indie rock. I remember the backlash she experienced when she went a little more pop. But I never actually listened to her. I was afraid that she was a little too hard rock for me, and I like my rock just like I like my rolls - soft, warm and buttery.
Musical blindspots were more understandable back in the day when collecting music was expensive. You’d only buy a record if it was from an already favorite artist or if they broke through with enough hits to take the $18.98 risk. The highest accolade was to be “bought on faith” - an automatic purchase on release day (which is exactly how we all got stuck with 4 terrible Springsteen and Guns N’ Roses albums back when Liz was recording Guyville.)
All of which is to say that I’ve loved immersing myself in Exile in Guyville, and I think I might be in love with Liz Phair, but I’m not entirely sure I love the album.
I most appreciate how effectively she counter-balances her witty and confessional lyrics with an affectless delivery, allowing her to be both an active participant and a bored observer of the action. It’s a very compelling combination.
Musically, I love the directness of her guitar tone. I love her choruses. I love the vibe of the whole album and now I’ve convinced myself that I definitely love her.
Alas, I don’t love all of the songs on the album. There are four standouts: “Fuck and Run”, “Shatter”, “Never Said” and “Divorce Song”. That leaves 17 songs that are cool and have a great vibe, but are more powerful in the context of the record than they are as singles.
Don, thanks for making me look in a different direction and fixing one of my major musical blindspots. It was worth the trip up the ladder.
Pitch Successful
Ken’s Response:
Remember Llyod (John Cusack) Dobler’s quirky female friend Corey from Say Anything? She was a lovable sad-sack who was hopelessly in love with the pathetic and manipulative Joe. She wrote 65 songs, all about Joe. They had lyrics like “Joe lies. Joe lies when he cries.” and “THAT’LL NEVER BE ME, THAT’LL NEVER BE ME. THAT’LL NEVER BE NEVER BE NO NEVER BE ME!” Upon listening to the first 6-7 minutes of Exile in Guyville, that was all I could think about. But then I heard one lyric during “Help Me Mary” (I don’t even remember which line it was), and I restarted the album. This was going to be a much bigger task than I anticipated. Not only was this unlike anything I had heard before, but it was going to take all of my critical listening skills.
What I found at the end was an incredible record that was deliberately crafted. Each immersive guitar lick and every emotion provoked by her lyrics feel like intentional choices. She punches you in the face with her words and somehow you ask for more. She has a unique gift of being brutally honest, not giving one single fuck about what anyone thinks about her, yet she remains a very sympathetic lead character throughout the album
If I have to pick on one thing it’s that there are a couple of clunkers that could have been cut, but with so many incredible tracks like “6’1”, “Never Said”, “Fuck and Run” and “Divorce Song”, Exile In Guyville is going right into my regular rotation.
Pitch Successful
Don’s pitch was a big hit and Liz Phair’s Exile in Guyville has been added to the Newbury St. Collection!
Thanks for reading! Has Don convinced you to say YES to Liz Phair’s Exile in Guyville?
Please join us next week as Mitch turns it on again with Genesis’s 1980 prog-rock synthesizer fest Duke.
I hope Don's write up and the rest of the responses somehow get back to Liz. In the meantime, I'm happy it made it to me. Like Mitch, it was in my musical blindspot and I'm thrilled you guys put the magnifying glass on it. - Jason 6'3"
Good album - though I prefer WhipSmart. You called out all the good songs on the album in your "review". CJ, sorry to let your down but WBRU stopped broadcasting a few years back. It's now a Christian Contemporary station. WBUR lives on as a streaming service.