With all the negative press surrounding Liz Phair the past couple years, you would think the last thing she would want to do is release another pop album. The self-titled Liz Phair, released in 2003, was a slick piece of work—so slick that her cult following, who still live and breathe off her first album, Exile in Guyville, saw her as Judas. It was an album that saw Liz throw aside meaningful songwriting for hooks and radio hits. Even when she found room for her popular potty mouth, the words seemed misplaced and misused. It reeked of a quick fix to sell out.
It was also an album that made Liz Phair a happy woman.
Lost in the juvenile argument of what Liz Phair was or wasn’t, hid a single mom in her late thirties having the time of her life. Somebody’s Miracle, her fifth album, doesn’t discard the happy, pop sound of Liz Phair, but rather serves as a happy medium for herself and her fans to enjoy and once again get on with their lives.
For starters,
Somebody’s Miracle reasserts Phair as a confident songwriter. Sure there is a cheesy line or two (“Each frog has a prince that’s waiting inside of him”) that could have been written by an intern at her record label’s headquarters, but for the most part, the songs are confessional and from the heart. Perhaps the biggest complaint about
Liz Phair was that she teamed up with The Matrix (see Lavigne, Avril) for songwriting partnership, which in turn produced the plain-as-bread “Why Can’t I” and “Extraordinary.” Neither were bad pop songs, but they left no room for imagination, something Phair has done so well in the past and has won over fans(see “Flower” and “Divorce Song”).
On Somebody’s Miracle, it’s Phair who is given writing credits for most of the tunes, and it’s a relief. Her honesty is greatly appreciated and heartfelt on “Table For One” and “Closer To You,” while the mainstream title track carries more weight than just another song you listen to on the radio.
I’ll admit that this isn’t a timeless album that you’ll keep going back to when you think about Liz Phair. But it signifies what Phair is at this point in her career: an artist who is having fun and not caring about her past glories. Let’s just hope people are still willing to listen to her play out the rest of her career. Whose miracle that would be is anyone’s guess.
