![\"Liz](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Liz-Phair-Singer-Musician-2019-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855.jpg\")
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(Credits: Far Out \/ WFUV Public Radio)<\/p>\n
Wed 3 September 2025 21:30, UK <\/p>\n
Feminist trailblazer, guitar<\/a> hero, fan of the occasional nip slip, Liz Phair is known for many things. But her second LP, Whip-Smart, fails to make the cut, despite the empty promises made by Capitol Records about the album. <\/p>\n It\u2019s late 1994, a year with highs and lows for the music scene. Nine Inch Nails have released their second studio album that would go on to sell three million copies, Kurt Cobain has been found dead at just 27, and the likes of Weezer have blessed us with their groundbreaking debuts. <\/p>\n Still reaping the rewards of her newfound fame, 27-year-old Liz Phair picks up the phone to yet another interview request. According to critic Bill Wyman, it rang \u201cliterally incessantly\u201d at this time. Why? Because all eyes were on the budding star, who, the year before, had released her debut, Exile in Guyville, an album<\/a> that would sell more copies for Matador Records than any other.<\/p>\n When she began to record a string of new songs in Chicago and the welcome respite of the Bahamas, the alternative world turned its attention to what was set to be Phair\u2019s groundbreaking second take, Whip-Smart, which served as the product of a six-figure joint venture between Matador and Atlantic Records.<\/p>\n As part of the deal with Atlantic, Phair was informed that she could direct her own music videos, something the artist relished in and quickly took to be a personal film project. \u201cI kept trying to assert my\u00a0artisticness,\u201d Phair told Slate, adding, \u201cI could be a director, sure. Anything to stop what was happening, which was that my job was going to be a\u00a0performer.\u201d Sadly, the project never reached its potential as she realised that her plans might just be too big for their boots, and she was dealing with \u201cgetting on with just being Liz Phair\u201d.<\/p>\n Atlantic\u2019s president at the time, Danny Goldberg, told Billboard <\/a>that Whip-Smart was a \u201cworthy successor\u201d of Exile, going as far as to say that it will \u201chit gold quickly\u201d. While executives at Matador hoped for only 10,000 or so copies of Exile to be sold, Atlantic certainly raised the bar with Phair\u2019s second album, launching a target of 500,000 units. For reference, when Nirvana\u2019s second album, Nevermind, was released in 1991, the band\u2019s record label, Geffen, hoped to sell just 250,000 copies, despite Nirvanamania eventually leading to these units, and more, being met weekly. <\/p>\n But it wasn\u2019t just the film project that flopped before it could walk. While Whip-Smart is far from being a failure, it was unable to meet the lofty expectations and predictions of Atlantic Records. The album went on to sell 600,000 copies and eventually became gold certified, but it took five years to get there, contradicting the immediate success of Exile, which went on to be listed on Rolling Stone\u2018s \u2018500 Greatest Albums of All Time\u2019. <\/p>\n Opening with tracks \u2018Chopsticks\u2019 and \u2018Supernova\u2019, the latter of which remains Phair\u2019s second-most-streamed song on Spotify, Whip-Smart served as a departure from the sexual frankness of Exile that so many fans, mostly male, enjoyed. In many ways, her second album served as a reminder that there was more to the artist than what society wanted, especially from her. <\/p>\n Speaking to Pitchfork, Phair admitted that this conservatism fuelled her musical career: \u201cIt was my gateway drug into alternative\u201d. On a similar note, or to put it more bluntly, she once admitted to Request<\/a>, \u201cI didn\u2019t lose my virginity when I was 12, and I don\u2019t want to fuck everyone until they\u2019re blue. People expect me to be Liz Phair all the time, but I\u2019m Elizabeth Clark Phair and I have an entirely independent existence.\u201d<\/p>\n