Whip-Smart is an all-time favourite record for me, and I play it more often than Exile in Guyville. Maybe it’s because I got this CD first (my local record shop guy had a hard time getting his hands on Exile)? Maybe it’s because I have next to no affinity for the Rolling Stones? I get why that record is a landmark, but I think Whip-Smart holds up better. This piece in Slate is a pretty good history of it.

My memory of it is that it didn’t gain traction because it didn’t have the promiscuous vibe that the horny music media (men) expected from her. It’s vulgar but in a defiant and dismissive way rather than an alluring way.

This bit from the Slate article is great:

At times, the atmosphere inside Idful could be magically creative. Wood recalled Rice coming up with an innovative idea to capture the “watery, dreamscape guitar sound” they wanted for “Nashville,” a beautiful torch song that Wood considers one of the best tracks he’s ever recorded. As Phair played her guitar part, Rice stood on a chair in the middle of the studio’s enormous live room, slowly swinging a thrift-store lavalier microphone by its cord in wide circles so that the mic passed near speakers at either end of the space.

Once you hear it, you can see it in your mind, it’s pretty great:

Anyway, read the piece, listen to the record. It’s pretty flawless.

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