Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CLXXXIII--Liz Phair: Perfect World

Back in the day when I was taking guitar lessons, I used to get scolded for letting my fingers slide along the strings as I switched chords because it would make the strings squeak--imagine my surprise when listening to this week's tune (also back in the day) that one time Indie It Girl Liz Phair had the same flaw in her technique....

Liz Phair burst onto the music scene in 1993  with the release of her seminal debut LP, Exile in Guyville (an all time emaycee fave, ranked #327 on Rolling Stone's list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time"), and while she never quite lived up to the early potential many saw in her, still has had (and continues to have) a very respectable career in the music industry.  During the mid 2000's Phair took a new direction in her career and went from Indie It Girl to Pop Diva--which went over like a fart in church (in fairness, not all Phair's fault as it was kind of an "or else" directive from her label--but in fairness to those who decried Phair's decision what I've heard of her pop tunes was pretty weak), but it didn't bring her any more commercial success than before.  Today she still tours and makes most of her income by writing music for television shows, which beats the hell out of selling groceries.  Still, over the course of her career Phair has sold some three million records, released 6 albums, had one top forty single, and received a Grammy nomination.  Many would say, myself included, that that's a phairly good run....

Released on her Whitechocolatespaceegg LP in 1998, "Perfect World" was not released as a single (though it would have made a hell of a good one), so there's no need for mentions of the Billboard Hot 100.  The album was the highest charting of Phair's career, peaking at #35 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard 200.

Fun Fact:  For those wondering, Whitechocolatespaceegg would be what Phair thought her newborn son looked like....

"Perfect World" is another one of those songs that I began Friday Night Jukebox for--a chance to highlight little known album gems (not that there's anything wrong with well known gems).  Clocking in at two minutes and fifteen seconds, "Perfect World" is a spare portrait of a woman looking into what she perceives to be the "pretty life" of a man she's desiring and wishing in a perfect world that she would be what she is not (if that makes any sense?).  Anyway, the song features a couple of acoustic guitars and some violins, one of the best vocals of Phair's career (Phair often sings in a lilting monotone--oxymoron alert!--but she actually sings a credible ballad here), and one of the best lines written in the history of pop music (see below).  All in all, Phair does with "Perfect World" what many a great artist before her has done:  make the complex seem so much more simple than it really is.

Lyric Sheet:  "No need for Lucifer to fall if he'd learn to keep his mouth shut...."

Enjoy:

Fuck Donald Trump,

emaycee