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La fama di Liz Phair è sempre rimasta legata all'ottimo esordio "Exile In Guyville", che l'aveva innalzata a paladina dell'indie-rock al femminile e della musica rigorosamente in low-fidelity (anche se è ben evidente, a partire da quest'album, che Liz Phair non ha mai ricercato volutamente il falso mito del low-fi). I due dischi successivi però sono sempre stati per lo più snobbati e sottovalutati, nonostante molte buone intuizioni. Questo "Whip-Smart" è stato il gradino più pericoloso, in quanto seguito diretto del pluriosannato esordio. Di certo è meno provocatorio, meno originale e meno franco; Liz Phair non parla più così scioltamente di sesso (pur non smettendo di parlarne), le canzoni descrivono relazioni più stabili e meno turbolente di quelle narrate nei piccoli confessionali del disco precedente.
Già l'apertura è meno stratosferica: "Chopsticks", due minuti di impalpabile pianoforte, non è certo trascinante come una "6'1"". Eppure la Phair riesce comunque ad attirare l'attenzione dell'ascoltatore grazie ad una curiosa trama ed al suo primo "fuck" gratuito: "He said he liked to do it backwards. I said that's just fine with me. That way we can fuck and watch TV". E' in un testo come questo che emerge in pieno lo spirito di Liz Phair in tutta la sua schiettezza e ironia, probabilmente le vere chiavi del suo fascino.
Ma se "Chopsticks" spiazza l'ascoltatore, questi non può che trovarsi ancor più allibito quando subito dopo si trova faccia a faccia con la vulcanica "Supernova", buon tentativo di azzeccare un perfetto hit single in tempi ancora non sospetti. Il pezzo è squisitamente orecchiabile e messo in risalto dal testo, tutto fuorché convenzionale per una canzone d'amore. Anche in "Support System" Liz Phair gioca in lidi più pop, introducendo un ritornello fischiettato che è probabilmente cortesia degli XTC, ma funziona perfettamente nel suo contesto.
Ai puristi due pezzi come questi - benché entrambi freschissimi esempi di pop perfettamente a cavallo fra indie e mainstream - possono far storcere il naso. Quando Liz Phair si accosta di più al suo esordio però fa anche meglio: "Nashville" è parente neanche troppo lontana di "Gunshy" o "Explain It To Me" di "Exile In Guyville": un distorto pezzo acustico dal retrogusto psichedelico e sognante. Ma anche la criptica "Shane", agghiacciante soprattutto nella chiusura affidata ad un inquietante "You gotta have fear in your heart" che si ripete ciclicamente come un solenne monito. La malinconica "Go West" è un pezzo che, semmai ce ne fossero ancora, toglie ogni dubbio sulla versatilità vocale di Liz Phair, mettendo a confronto ancora una volta come nella celebre "Flower" il suo sublime contralto con un celestiale falsetto.
Peccato che nella seconda metà il disco, pur mantenendosi su livelli buoni, non riesca a colpire allo stesso modo se non nella frenetica "Jelaousy" e nell'imprevista cantilena della title-track (in cui Phair descrive un suo futuro ed ideale figlio per poi sfociare nel divertente ritornello, consapevole citazione della "Double-Dutch" di Malcolm McLaren). Il nudo rock crescente di "May Queen" è il brano di chiusura più azzeccato di tutta la discografia della cantautrice.
"Whip-Smart" risulta un piacevole disco di transizione fra "Exile In Guyville" e la svolta di "Whitechocolatespaceegg", più digeribile e meno amatoriale del predecessore ma ancora lontano dall'essere un mero disco di massa (non casuale ogni riferimento al self-titled del 2003). E anche se non sempre convince del tutto, di dischi così non se ne trovano più tanto facilmente.
Elenco tracce e testi
01 Chopsticks (02:05)
I met him at a party and he told me how to drive him home
He said he liked to do it backwards and I said that's just fine with me
That way we can fuck and watch TV
It was 4 am and the light was grey like it always is in paperbacks
He asked if I liked playing jacks
I told him that I was good to sixes but all hell brook loose after that
I told him that I knew Julia Roberts when I was 12 at summer camp
We didn't say anything after that
I dropped him off and drove on home
'Cause secretely I'm timid
02 Supernova (02:48)
I have looked all over the place,
But you have got my favorite face.
Your eyelashes sparkle like gilded grass
and your lips are sweet and slippery
Like a cherub's bare wet ass ...
'Cause you're a human supernova,
A solar superman.
You're an angel with wings of fire,
A flying, giant friction blast.
You walk in clouds of glitter
and the sun reflects your eyes.
And every time the wind blows,
I can smell you in the sky.
Your kisses are as wicked as an F-16
And you fuck like a volcano
and you're everything to me...
'Cause you're a human supernova,
A solar superman
You're an angel with wings of fire,
A flying, giant friction blast
You're a giant, flying friction blast
'Cause you're a human supernova,
A solar superman,
You're an angel with wings of fire,
A flying, giant friction blast ...
03 Support System (02:58)
I don't need a support system
Lifting me into prop-position
What I need is a man of action, I need my attraction to you
Driving me down all those dangerous avenues
Lions and tigers tearing at their food.
(whistle break)
I know the gossip
Flies around at breakfast
One of them rings in your hand
Where do you get the fuck off thinking
I was there at the party 'cause
All of my friends feed me evil reasons
Why you and I should not be friends...
Let's think this whole thing through,
Tell me, just what the hell is a lover supposed to do?
I got the wrong reaction
A slap in the face from you.
(whistle break:
This is such a stupid picture,
Wrap me in a steak Why don't you
Throw it in the panther cage and
Maybe then I'll like you better (No Way))
I don't need a support system
Lifting me into prop-position
What they make is a separation of beauty from attitude
What satisfaction is left when all you do tells everyone
You're acting untrue
(whistle break:
This is such a stupid picture,
Light a cigarette why don't you
Stub it in a carburator,
Maybe then you'll sell me something
(No Way))
I don't need a support system
Put your hand on my heart and listen
What I need is a dedication to last me all the way through
Pointing the finger, I'm counting on loving you
Over and above the passion
I'm connected to you.
05 Shane (04:12)
I know that it was the night
The war broke out because
You and I were driving around
You were doing a story
About if people understood
What had happened to their world
Tonight
In bed
Sleeping
The world tonight
In bed
Asleep
You said that you were in touch
With the draft resistors
In case the big boys called you up
You're gonna have to let 'em
Dick you around
But don't let 'em make
You do
What you can't live with
Tonight
In bed
With me
Sleeping
You looked like you were just a little kid
Shane, I said, you've got to watch your ass
You've gotta have fear in your heart (x8)
Fear in your heart.
06 Nashville (04:42)
They don't know
What they like so much about it
They just go
For any shiny old bauble
And nobody sparkles like you..
But I can't imagine it in better terms
Than naked, half awake, about to shave and go to work..
And I'm starting to think it could happen to me like it did to you
And I'm starting to actually feel it seep through the
Slick divide now
I don't crack the door too far for anyone who's pushing too hard on me
They don't know
What they like so much about it
Maybe it goes on the other side of the hallway,
The writing's so small from here..
But I can't imagine it in better terms
Than naked, half awake, about to shave and go to work..
I won't decorate my love (x6)
08 Cinco de Mayo (02:43)
Cinco de Mayo.
Blow out, denial.
It wasn't fun this time, letting you go.
What if I never, a bullet forever,
Held out my hand to you, we wouldn't have known
Beautiful flow,
Absolute measure, I ain't no pleasure hound
Bus' out of control, plowing the road.
Out on a bender, just Alice falling down
A deepening hole.
I'd never been to Rome until you smiled.
You're about as old and piled.
I used to pray for snow...
Now I just wonder what spell I was under,
Thinking you thought of me as
Something to hold.
I'd never been to Rome until you smiled.
You're about as old and piled.
Cinco de Mayo.
Burn-out, Ohio.
It wasn't me this time, letting you go.
11 Jealousy (03:37)
He's got a million dollar car
He's got a thirty-seven year old guitar
He's got a family who deals heroin,
you're on the edge of your chair and then
You feel it
He's looking at you
He's laughing at you
It's happening.
I can't, I can't believe it.
But it's here on the pages I'm reading
It's all I can do to conceal my feelings of jealousy.. jealousy..
I know it's just a drawer of photographs
They're ex-girlfriends, I try to remember that
I don't wanna look, but I'm already hooked on jealousy.. jealousy..
I can't believe you had a life before me
I can't believe they let you run around free
Just putting your body wherever it seemed like a good idea
What a good idea
Standing
On the corner
Watching
The ladies
Pass by
Imagining me behind your eyes
And then what did I see?
I saw hips, I saw thighs
I saw secret positions that we never try
I saw jealousy
I saw jealousy
I can't, I can't believe it
But it's here in this place and I see it
It's all I can do to conceal my feelings of jealousy.. jealousy..
Standing
On the mud flats
Watching
The salmon
Die
Wonder if I'll ever bury the hatchet inside.
Imagining me behind your eyes
And then what did I see?
I saw hips, I saw thighs
I saw secret positions that we never try
I saw jealousy
I saw jealousy
I can't believe you had a life before me
I can't believe they let you run around free
Just putting your body wherever it seemed like a good idea
What a good idea
13 Alice Springs (01:50)
See the sun rise
So loud,
This whole town
Gets drowned out.
Sky writing with the sweep of a flashlight
I'm driving over that way
Some pot of gold, it's just a carpeting store on opening day.
See the moon rise
So slow,
And shallow,
It burns halos in my eyes.
It's harder to swallow,
It's harder to breathe,
So many opals, nobody here knows what to believe.
They've got me underground.
Carico i commenti... con calma
