This album was reissued this week with a few bonus tracks, and is apparently remastered. It’s one of my all time favorite albums, and it’s such a shame that for all the acclaim it gets that not many people seem to have heard it. Does anyone else plan on picking this up? I’m listening to it right now, it sounds great.
Wasn’t this album deliberately lo-fi? They didn’t wash all the grime off, did they?
I still listen to Guyville regularly, but I won’t be picking up the remastered version. I’ve never had any complaints about the sound of the original. I’d be interested in hearing the bonus tracks, but not interested enough to pay money for them.
I don’t think I know anyone else who owns Guyville, but that’s mainly because I don’t know too many people whose musical taste extends far beyond Garth Brooks and Kelly Clarkson.
Huh. I might, since I think my copy is a long packed-away cassette. I honestly don’t remember it that well, other than I liked it at the time and found subsequent Liz Phair stuff of minimal interest. Might be worth picking up to reaquaint myself with it and see if it still holds up.
The impression I’ve always gotten is that the album is meant to have a lo-fi feel in how alone Phair sounds, but I’ve always been pretty impressed with the production. IMO the grime was all in the mood, not the recording. Either way, I’m on my second playthrough of the album and it sounds great. “Overpolish” is not a concern, definitely.
The bonus tracks are pretty good, but I’ll admit they aren’t worth buying the album a second time. I forgot to mention the album does come with a bonus DVD that is supposed to be pretty interesting, but I never end up watching those.
I saw the reissue on vinyl last weekend; they wanted like $27 for it, or it would have come home with me right there. I’ll probably still pick it up eventually.
This is a desert-island album for me – but I have no intention of buying another copy of it for the sake of bying another copy of it.
As an aside for any of you that have Comcast Digital, if you go into the On Demand menu and go into the Music category there is a 10 minute video of Liz Phair talking to people that she made the album with… producer, photographer, etc. Pretty interesting
This album is genius and I listened to it so much that the disk is screwed up now, so maybe it’s time for me to buy a new one. This is the perfect excuse.
Why is it that none of Phair’s other stuff does a thing for me?
Because sometimes people only have one good album in them. Sad but true. I actually activly dislike her other stuff, but think this album is brilliant.
I wasn’t planning on picking up the reissue, but am curious about how good the bonus tracks are. Those of you that got the album, what do you think?
I hear this all the time but I have to say again that I think Liz Phair’s self-titled CD is great. It’s a fun little pop album, who cares if it’s not as “deep” as her previous stuff?
Fair I suppose. I used to work as a hired gun guitar player for a female singer who liked to do a lot of Liz Phare covers, the only songs I didn’t grow to loath durring that time were the ones off Guyville.
We did a killer rendition of Divorce Song though.
They’re pretty good, but clearly don’t match the tracks on Exile. You can hear why they didn’t make the final cut. Unless you’re interested in the DVD (I think the clip Improvisor saw came from it) it probably isn’t worth buying the album again.
I’m full-on in support of the reissue since the album was out of print, but I prefer my bonus tracks to be on a separate disc so the original album is preserved. I really wish this would have come with a disc of the Girlysounds demos, which to my knowledge have never been available on CD.
Whitechocolatespaceegg is a good album – not a great album, like Exile, but completely listenable and with a few really good songs.
I’d say the same about Whip Smart. Exile in Guyville is the only Liz Phair album I don’t listen to any more. I’ve heard it so many times it’s like listening to Stairway to Heaven.