Exile in Guyville vs. Rid of Me

I'll take Guyville for prolonged listenability (as I can't remember the last time I played Rid of Me).

Oh, and "Guyville"... probably for the moments with some levity that I find in it.

Rid of Me far and away.

to quote Michael Jackson, you are not alone.

Rid of Me by a Texas mile.

Not to me. Feels kinda forced.

Rid of Me is far stronger.

I've always disliked Guyville. I'd rather listen to the Monkeys.

It doesn't really make much sense to me.

Yes, I am. I like every PJ Harvey album from To Bring You My Love on, but don't like the first two at all. I've never heard a whole Liz Phair album from beginning to end, but I've also never heard a single song of hers that I liked. So if I vote at all, it's a default vote for Harvey.

Liz Phair vs. PJ Harvey: PJ Harvey wins

PJ on The Tonight Show: I remember that performance! I was disappointed because she did "Rid of Me" all by herself, and it's not as good without the drums coming in on the chorus. She did redeem herself in conversation with Leno talking aboot castrating rams back home on the farm, though.

I was under the impression -- based on the explosive love from the fanbase here in particular, though I can't say it ever did that with me -- that Madonna's Erotica album did the same thing the year before, on a much more well known and publically successful scale. So why aren't the two albums being compared with that, then?

(My larger point -- I don't find anything unusually striking about these qualities you state and therefore little to connect the two beyond release timing coincedence. I also really don't find much about Phair to be particularly landmark or unique, and if there was influence, I regard that as unfortunate.)

Ah, I love you CeCe, but note the first post I made to the thread. ;-)

Exile in Guyville vs Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea

While it certainly helps in drawing a larger contrast between the two, I still ultimately don't sense or feel any real connection here beyond a simple matter of time. I don't think PJ Harvey did something *specific* right while Liz Phair did that same *specific* thing wrong or anything like that, so for that reason setting the two albums/performers up as a somehow natural comparison falls apart for me.

another example of her shrewd business acumen

This attempt to separate Madonna from both PJH and Phair on the basis of this alone strikes me as very disengenuous, not least of which because it seems to want to implicitly draw a line between 'business' and for lack of a better term 'art' in all three cases, where I think you can readily argue a very blurred line all around. For myself only, I don't recall feeling shocked at all by either lyric, and I was a tender 22 years old at the time -- that said, you could rewrite 'shrewd business acumen' to say that both PJH and Phair *knew* they were going to get a reaction to those lines among certain people if not everyone (your experience may be different, though, in that I can't recall any actual *fan* of either investing said lines with the importance most of the writers at the time did, and I knew plenty of fans of both artists). FWIW it was Phair's line which seemed to linger and define as much as a selling hook as anything else, along with maybe the song title "Fuck and Run," to the point it was as if every other lyric on the album didn't exist (in comparison, as opposed to some sort of 'shock' lyric or whatever, PJH seemed more to rely on her photo work with Maria Mochanaz, if I've spelled her name right -- another instance of careful use of image and projection, like a 'shock' lyric can be as well, which seems as natural a balance between 'business' and 'art' as anything Madonna or *any* number of artists, male or female, have ever done).

Raw Chicago production (PJH & Steve Albini) vs Slicker Chicago Production (LP & Brad Wood)

Both of these would be templates for some of the more well-known indie/alt-rock to come in the 1990s.

Too right. He buried that album. I know, she wanted to buried, whatever. I do like it, it's still pretty great, but I'd like it more with a little more texture. I like both Dry and To Bring You My Love better.

Before I saw Liz P. in concert the other month, I probably still would've given it to PJ on points, partly because I still listen to PJ more than Liz. But the concert reminded me that Liz, and Exile in particular (she was generous with the Exile tunes, and rightly so), has a lot of great songs. As much as I admire PJ Harvey (and "admire" is the operative word, she invites distance), there's nothing on Rid of Me that I've ever loved as much as "Help Me Mary" or "Divorce Song" or 4 or 5 other things on Exile.

Ultimately, I can see how it would strike you as lazy to compare the two; if you don't personally connect these women on any deeper levels (as I do -- they are completely linked in my personal experiences - see above responses re: my college years and goddamned Leno), -- it would seem their surface similarities are vague and slippery outside of the facts that they are both women who play guitar and sing about sex. (But, shit, this brings something else up -- PJ Harvey and Liz Phair wrote their songs! On guitars! Madonna's songs -- on that album in particular -- were studio creations that came from messing around with new equipment and Paula Abdul's producers).

Okay, I'll let it die now, for real!

Outside of their popularity & the scale of these things (cf. Madonna's Erotica / Sex multimedia blitz vs. Liz's little song / album), there is ABSOLUTELY no difference - both moves are equally "calculated".

1993 was a long time ago, huh?

exile

No wai.

i was so much older then

classic ilm

I’m younger than that now