I'm a much better singer, producer and guitarist now ... and my voicings and tunings are far more complex and interesting, but there's a pure, unspoiled, unselfconscious beauty to the early work that I can't capture again. I can't unknow what I know.

Liz Phair

Elizabeth Clark Phair (born April 17, 1967) is an American singer-songwriter.Born in New Haven, Connecticut, Phair was raised primarily in the Chicago area. After graduating from Oberlin College in 1990, she attempted to start a musical career in San Francisco, California, but returned to her home in Chicago, where she began self-releasing audio cassettes under the name Girly Sound. The tapes led to a recording contract with the independent record label Matador Records. Her 1993 debut studio album, Exile in Guyville, was released to critical acclaim; it has been ranked by Rolling Stone as one of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Phair followed this with her second album, Whip-Smart (1994), which earned her a Grammy Award nomination for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, and Whitechocolatespaceegg (1998). Ten years after the release of her debut, Phair's fourth album, Liz Phair (2003), released on Capitol Records, moved towards pop rock, earning her a mainstream audience; the single "Why Can't I?" peaked at number 32 on the Billboard Hot 100.After the release of her fifth album, Somebody's Miracle (2005), Phair left Capitol and released her sixth album Funstyle independently in 2010. In 2018, it was announced that Matador Records would be releasing a retrospective set for Phair's debut album Exile in Guyville which includes remastered recordings from her original Girly Sound demo tapes. Phair released her seventh studio album Soberish on June 4, 2021. As of 2011, Phair had sold over three million records worldwide.

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