'Liz Phair' starts promisingly with the heavy-in-a-cute-Juliana-Hatfield-sort-of-way opening riff of Extraordinary, but within a few seconds the song succumbs to very pedestrian verse and chorus. It is here that I notice that The Matrix (they who penned half of Avril Lavigne's album) wrote four songs on this record (the single Why Can't I? is a very obvious relative of Complicated).

Technically, Phair has definitely improved over the years as a singer. On the surface she seems to remain as confessional as ever. A couple of tracks tackle her divorce (Friend of Mine, Good Love Never Dies) and what it's like to date as a single mother (Little Digger). None of the lyrics get particularly deep, though, and the rest of the album is all about fun stuff, like dating guys ten years your junior (Favorite, Rock Me) or sex/beauty tips (H.W.C.).

I've got nothing against straight out pop music. Liz Phair has every right to want to make her fun record. But behind the veneer of the obvious 'hit' singles (which stick in your head, but not in that good way), the remainder of the songs seem more restrained rather than fun. Even in the 'controversial' H.W.C. it sounds like Phair is holding back something that she really wants to say. 'Cute and fun' has been done much better (Juliana Hatfield and Nina Gordon come to mind).

The album comes with links to an exclusive downloadable 5-track 'Comeandgetit' EP, which, to tell you the truth, I've been listening to a lot more than the album, even despite the shocking decision to use the unwieldy Windows Media format. What, I ask you, is the point of supplying printable CD covers if you can't easily burn a CD of it? Anyway, in my opinion, it sounds better than most of the album proper.

Eddie Chan

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