this ain't it.Īrnold's book puzzles over the fact that the mainstream had nothing for Liz Phair despite the obvious merits of the album. I'm been rooting for her to make a triumphant return to rock writing, but. I loved Arnold's early book Route 666 and saw how weak her subsequent tome was (Kiss This). This is not the book on Liz Phair you've been waiting for. That, coupled with her insistence on either completely eliding, misrepresenting, and/or shoehorning facts into her argument, willy-nilly, as she sees fit, makes me distrustful of her as a critic, and disappointed in the book as a whole. I think Arnold's argument is incredibly interesting, but in reading this volume, I feel like she ultimately took the easy way out and made it more about herself than her experience listening to the album, or any collective audience listening to the album, or, simply, the album. Her entire book is a feminist discourse on the heteronormative, conservative reality behind the well-meaning, DIY "alternative" to grossly chauvinist hair metal that was (is?) the indie-rock scene, but she completely neglects mentioning the existence/reception of contemporary (albeit controversial) indie feminist figureheads like Lisa Carver of Rollerderby, Kathleen Hanna, and Courtney Love. She spends another 10 pages explaining why she, personally, hates the Rolling Stones, yet only uses a handful of quotes from Phair, WHO MADE THE ALBUM, and the quotes come from a scanty 3-4 interview sources at that.
She feels compelled to define the term "A&R" but has no trouble tossing out theoretical jargon like doxa with no explanation. Her claim that Exile in Guyville suffered low sales due to Phair's inexperience playing live is one I've heard before, but she offers no concrete proof to back it up. She completely ignores the existence of college radio. She claims that Kim Gordon "showed no interest in her appearance," ignoring the fact that Gordon founded a fashion label (X-Girl). She apparently thinks Mercury Rev is a British band. She makes arguably false statements, claiming that interest in vinyl is on the wane, when countless articles have been published lauding the comeback of the LP. Arnold spends upward of twenty pages discussing the homogeneity of Starbucks in Korea, likening it to Phair's mythical Guyville, which I find to be more than a stretch. Where to start? The copy editing is ghastly, but not Arnold's fault (you can do better Bloomsbury!). This book, which is less a making-of retrospective than an argument focused on the inherent patriarchy of the 90s indie rock scene, seen through Phair's role and refutation of said patriarchy, seemed tailor made for me. I *really wanted* to be able to say good things about this book.
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