Even when I was 17

In celebration of Exile in Guyville's 15th anniversary/me being a big loser, I have decided to guide everyone through the album. And yes, it's my Number One Desert Island Pick. kthnxbaii

Liz (we're on a first name basis) has always said that Exile in Guyville was a feminist response to The Rolling Stones' Exile On Main Street:

“It had to be either putting [Mick Jagger] into his place, like if he was talking about walking down the street, and he’s talking about he’s mister footloose and fancy free, doesn’t meet anyone who gives a damn,...I had to write a song about how much pain you could cause someone with that kind of attitude.” Yeah. I hate that guy.

Liz Phair - 6'1"
Liz Phair - Help Me Mary
Liz Phair - Glory

In “Dance of the Seven Veils,” Liz transforms herself into Salomé, ordering the head of her lover on a silver platter. It was the first time I ever heard a woman reclaim the word cunt. It was awesome.
Liz Phair - Dance of the Seven Veils
Liz Phair - Never Said
Liz Phair - Soap Star Joe
Liz Phair - Explain It To Me
Phair came out of the Chicago indie scene around the same time as Smashing Pumpkins, Urge Overkill, and Material Issue. The experience of living in Wicker Park, the west-town neighborhood that is still the symbolic base for Chicago’s hipsters and artists, was what fueled Guyville (an appropriate title, considering her role as one of the few women in a male-dominated indie-rock society). Of course, I could only wish for my interpretation of the title to be associated with anti-social boys who look like 12 year old girls with cancer.
Liz Phair - Canary
Liz Phair - Mesmerizing By far the most famous Phair song, "Fuck & Run" is the most representative of the album: it’s incredibly introspective and confessional, reflecting romantic disappointment that is pretty universal. It's also the first Liz Phair song I ever heard. Can you even imagine what that would to do a spongy, lonely, impressionable adolescent? Well you don't have to really, I am that kid! And look how I turned out.
In its list of the 500 best albums (Exile is number 328), Rolling Stone said that it “is one of the saddest songs ever written about dreaming of romance and settling for less.”
Liz Phair - Fuck & Run
Liz Phair - Girls Girls Girls

“Divorce Song” is my number one favorite song of all time (Sorry, D.A.N.C.E.!) It contains the finest lines Liz Phair ever wrote:

It’s harder to be friends than lovers

and you shouldn’t try to mix the two.

‘Cause if you do it and you’re still unhappy

then you know that the problem is you

Liz Phair - Divorce Song

Liz Phair - Shatter Liz unapolgetically and aggressively asserts her sexuality on "Flower":

I want to fuck you like a dog
I want to be your Blow Job Queen

And when she says, “You’re probably shy and introspective, but that’s not part of my objective,” I can’t help but think of her ripping apart the indie-rock dudes in Wicker Park fifteen years ago. You better believe she’d chew up Vampire Weekend and spit them back out without much thought. Dude, they are like Keith Gessen for the ears.
Liz Phair - Flower

Liz Phair - Johnny Sunshine

Liz Phair - Gunshy

Liz Phair - Stratford On Guy

Liz Phair - Strange Loop
The reissue of Exile in Guyville, featuring the Guyville Redux DVD and four bonus tracks (previously unreleased demo recordings, a new studio track, and an untitled instrumental), drops TOMORROW BITCHES. I've already pre-ordered mine. Whatever.