Exile in Guyville (15th anniversary reissue, with DVD & bonus tracks)

by

Liz Phair

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I never thought Dave Matthews would do something I'd care about, but he did! He signed Liz Phair recently to the ATO Records label that he's co-owner of, and re-released her "classic" debut Exile In Guyville.

This is a slightly odd choice, though. Firstly, why re-master an album that relies so heavily on its imperfect and raw sound? The 3 bonus tracks here are pretty useless. "Say You" is a reggae cover and is, to me, unlistenable, but nice to know they were messin around in the studio. "Ant In Alaska" is a song that fans of the Girlysound tapes will be familiar with. This is NOT the same version. It is cleaner, & it's nice to hear an unreleased studio version. But it is not one of Phair's best songs, and this take offers no real new insight. I thought the other track called "Instrumental" would be a little more interesting, yet it pales next to much of the guitar work that's IN Phair's first 2 albums. So again, this track is unnecessary filler.

FYI: The extra songs are not B-sides, as noted on the sleeve. In my opinion, they should be regarded as Outtakes.

Thankfully EIG is dense with 18 great songs, so there's no need to look for unearthed material to flesh out the picture. The album says more than enough on its own.

Another bonus with this re-issue is the companion DVD. It's well over an hour long, and features interviews with members of Urge Overkill, John Cusack, Dave Matthews(again), Steve Albini, Brad Wood and many other interesting people who helped Phair's career take off. The DVD is recorded in a low-budget way, making some dialogue hard to hear, but it's worth seeing if you're interested in what Phair was like at the time she made this album.

And as for Exile In Guyville re-mastered and all? Well, I'm unsure if the mastering brings any added qualities to the songs, but it's a pleasant, albeit unnecessary, excuse to revisit a brilliant album.

When am I gonna learn to read the reviews before I buy something? Well, in this case it's confusing because Amazon has the reviews of the original EXILE and of the 2008 rerelease all mixed in together. The original album is great--five-star--essential, in fact. The 2008 version is apparently remixed, with the main effect--so far as I can hear--of making some of the vocals less clear. The three extra tracks don't add anything. "Ant in Alaska" starts off understated and interesting, but when the volume goes up it turns into something that could have gone on Phair's JUVENILIA--and wouldn't have made that album any better, worse, or different, just one song longer. "Say You" sounds like Phair and the musicians having fun in the studio; well, good for them, but the song doesn't seem to have any relation to EXILE. The last track, titled "Instrumental" on the cover and "Standing" on the disc readout, is the one piece that sounds like it could have been an EXILE outtake, and that I'll be listening to again, but it wasn't worth the price of the whole album. (The rerelease also includes a DVD, but I'm not set up to play DVDs at the moment and so can't report on it. Other reviews seem to indicate that it's mostly other musicians talking about Phair and EXILE, which might be a bit interesting, but doesn't sound like a must-have.)