Exile in Whinerville

Of course, these songs are no more likely to please the vast majority of the world than classic Exilemoments like "Flower" or "Fuck and Run," and with better reason, since between the production and the subject matter, the whole project is slightly off-kilter. True, Liz Phair's first single, "Why Can't I," is as unstoppably catchy as, yes, one of Lavigne's horrid offerings, but wouldn't you rather hear someone with authentic musical context and actual songwriting talent sing a song like that, rather than an 18-year-old phony punk rocker?

Sure, there are slightly embarrassing moments on Liz Phair. That's life, is it not? It's a brave thing to sing a song like "Little Digger," in which Phair talks about the awkwardness of having a guy spend the night when you have a kid around.

If you think only nymphets can -- or should -- be sexy, that's your problem, not Ms. Phair's.

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"I've done the damage, the damage is done / I pray that I'm the damaged one," she sings, and then, heartbreakingly, she adds, "you keep repeating the line 'My mother is mine.' " Perhaps you can't relate to Phair's new concerns until you, too, have heard that poignant mantra, but does that mean her concerns aren't relevant, or realistic, or worth singing about, or real?

If that's the case -- that the life experiences of women in their thirties (and forties and fifties and so on) have no place in pop music -- then maybe women should withdraw their expertise, their interest and even their ears from the entire genre. And if that's not the case (certainly, one would hope it's not), then it doesn't make sense that Liz Phair, of all records, is getting such a bitch-slapping. The controversy surrounding it only goes to show what's sadly lacking in the music industry, in music criticism and maybe even in humanity itself.