One of my favorite singer/ songwriters is Liz Phair.  Whenever she puts out a new CD I tend to buy it, and I look forward to seeing her music videos.  Since she has recently put out a new CD, I bought that one yesterday.

What one seems to find in most Liz Phair releases is a mix of her "pop" songs, and those where she adheres to her own "indy rock" style that she's developed over the years.  (Her personal style is kind of an acoustic folk-rock, with her voice tending toward droning.)  The new album tends to stick exclusively to Liz Phair's preferred individual (not necessarily radio-friendly) style.  I didn't hear any "pop hits" my first time through.

I wouldn't call the new album "disappointing".  It is pretty much what one would expect when buying one of her CDs.  It is listenable, there are some nice songs, but there isn't exactly a sure-fire hit.  I was hoping for one or two pop songs to liven-up the album a bit, but they weren't in there.  Previous hits such as "Supernova" or "Why can't I?" are catchy, likable, mass-appeal songs; the other style that she uses doesn't really do that much for me on such a consistent basis.

Personally, I'd think that she'd be better-off dropping the whole "Indy-rock" thing.  I think that her voice, look, and musical talents better lend themselves to producing pop music hits.  She could be a lot more successful if she stuck to the formula that worked so well in her previous "Liz Phair" CD.  She'd do a good job emulating the style of Avril Lavigne or Kelly Clarkson on all of her CDs rather than once-in-a-while.

Here's a related review from The Onion's AV Club.  Basically saying that the new album is "nothing exciting."  I agree with most of it, except for the part where they trashed her last album.  Interestingly, it seems like a lot of the critics I've read really disliked her last record "Liz Phair".  That's strange.  It was one of my favorites.  I think that pop music is a good fit for her.