Exile's Return

By CHRISTOPHER JOHN FARLEY

Liz Phair isn't a great singer (her intonation is sometimes uncertain), her songs too often sound alike (a slight melody with a plucky bass), and she is no longer an independent-label secret (she just appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone). Yet there is something so vital and appealing about this Chicago rocker that it's hard not to admire her. Not many singer-songwriters manage to be so honest and so much fun at the same time.

Phair's 1993 debut album, Exile in Guyville, dealt bluntly, sometimes profanely, always intelligently, with sexual desire. It sold 200,000 copies -- a good showing for an independent release -- and won Phair critical adulation. On her second CD, Whip-Smart, Phair hews to her previous theme -- but where Guyville was an angry critique of relationships, Whip-Smart reveals a woman who appears much happier. On Supernova, for example, she sings with almost embarrassing exuberance about a lover who has proved to be ideal: "I have looked all over the place,/ But you have got my favorite face."

Phair's guitar playing has a likeable, warbling strangeness; she is developing into a stronger, more varied songwriter. Her best new track, May Queen, has a melody that ranges more widely than the ones in her previous compositions, and her songs sometimes break out of the verse-chorus-verse penitentiary of most rock 'n' roll. Shane, for example, has no chorus. It's about disquiet before a war, and it ends with Phair repeatedly singing, "You've gotta have fear in your heart," an unsettlingly effective close.

Phair presents herself as an everyday person singing about her joys and fears. However, she's just a bit smarter, lustier and braver than most, and that's what makes her so winning. When it comes to speaking her mind, there's no fear in her heart.