Line #39 Music/ExileInGuyville


1	[[quoteright:340:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/4b57a702d289e0e3385769bc7a573b89.jpg]]
2
3	''Exile in Guyville'' is the debut studio album by Music/LizPhair, released in 1993. It was a surprising critical success, and it garnered the singer-songwriter mainstream attention.
4
5	The album cover features Liz topless in a photo booth. Its lyrical themes mainly revolve around the sexual and intellectual independence of women, a direct contrast to the frequently sexist attitudes Liz faced while growing up. It's also a ConceptAlbum of sorts, where each song is supposed to be an AnswerSong to Music/{{The Rolling Stones\|Band}}' ''Music/ExileOnMainSt'' (Liz has acknowledged that not all of the parallels may make sense to other people, but has said she was consciously thinking of the Stones album when writing the songs and constructing the album; she's also given interviews such as [[https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/he-said-she-said-how-liz-phair-took-the-rolling-stones-to-guyville-20100521 this one]] in which she's elaborated more on some of the parallels.)
6
7	Compositionally, Liz's voice is intentionally overshadowed by the surrounding music, giving a more full and production-heavy sound. It wasn't a huge commercial success, but remains a widely influential album since it helped shatter the DoubleStandard against women singing sexual songs.
8
9	----
10	!!Tracklist:
11	# "6′1″" (3:05)
12	# "Help Me Mary" (2:16)
13	# "Glory" (1:29)
14	# "Dance of the Seven Veils" (2:29)
15	# "Never Said" (3:16)
16	# "Soap Star Joe" (2:44)
17	# "Explain It to Me" (3:11)
18	# "Canary" (3:19)
19	# "Mesmerizing" (3:55)
20	# "Fuck and Run" (3:07)
21	# "Girls! Girls! Girls!" (2:20)
22	# "Divorce Song" (3:20)
23	# "Shatter" (5:28)
24	# "Flower" (2:03)
25	# "Johnny Sunshine" (3:27)
26	# "Gunshy" (3:15)
27	# "Stratford-On-Guy" (2:59)
28	# "Strange Loop" (3:57)
29
30	----
31	!! "Exile in Tropeville":
32
33	* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: "Soup Star Joe" is a parody of this and how Americans idealize the TroubledButCute guys who eventually make it big.
34	* AlliterativeTitle: "'''G'''irls '''G'''irls '''G'''irls". "'''S'''oap '''S'''tar Joe".
35	* AsTheGoodBookSays: "Dance of the Seven Veils" is based on the story of Salome and John the Baptist in the New Testament. The name of the song itself originated in Creator/OscarWilde's play ''Theatre/{{Salome}}'' and draws on a long literary tradition of portraying the titular female character as an incarnation of female lust.
36	* BreakUpSong: "Divorce Song", obviously. It's also one of a soft, melancholy song.
37	* ClusterFBomb: The album's language is frequently rather salty. "Fuck and Run" is naturally the most obvious example.
38	* ConceptAlbum: Sort of. The album really isn't a song-by-song answer to ''Music/ExileOnMainSt'', but it drives home the point that women can make intelligent and sexual rock music.
39	* CountryMatters: "Dance of the Seven Veils":
40	--> ''I only ask because I'm a real cunt in spring''
41	--> ''You can rent me by the hour''
42	--> ''I know all about the ugly pilgrim thing''
43	--> ''Entertainers bring May flowers''
44	* DesignStudentsOrgasm: The inside artwork was influenced by Lopez Tejera's 1952 album "The Joys and Sorrows of Andalusia". It even features polaroid shots of Liz and the management team, along with various other people.
45	* DisneyAcidSequence: "Stratford-On-Guy" mentions that she's in a plane wishing she were in a Music/{{Galaxie 500}} video, which are known for their really trippy psychedelic effects.
46	* EpicInstrumentalOpener: The first two and a half minutes of "Shatter" are instrumental. Inverted with "Strange Loop", whose final two minutes or so are instrumental.
47	* FaceOnTheCover: The album cover depicts a photo of a topless Phair striking a defiant pose; some releases crop the photo to remove most of her chest from view.
48	* GossipEvolution: "Never Said" is Liz denying having spoken something the other person in the conversation heard, which was possibly subject to this ("I don't know where you heard it Don't know who's spreadin' it 'round"). She said the inspiration was how the Chicago music scene was very catty and upset about whatever was being spread about their bands.
49	* IntentionallyAwkwardTitle: "Fuck and Run".
50	* IntercourseWithYou: Lots of songs, but "Glory" probably takes the cake:
51	--> ''He's got a really big tongue\
52	It rolls way out\
53	Snaking around in the club\
54	It slicks you down\
55	Scratching his face like a bum\
56	He pulls you back [...]\
57	You are, you are shining some glory\
58	On me''
59	** "Flower" is arguably even more so. See below under NonIndicativeTitle, and that's not even all of it.
60	* IntroductionByHookup: "Help Me, Mary" is about how she brings guys over to her house for sex, before they hypocritically begin to expect her to act a certain way.
61	* LiteraryAllusionTitle: As mentioned above, the title "Dance of the Seven Veils" comes from Creator/OscarWilde's play ''Theatre/{{Salome}}''.
62	* LyricalDissonance: About half the songs on the album sound very pretty until you listen to the lyrics. Good examples include "Johnny Sunshine", "Dance of the Seven Veils", and "Divorce Song".
63	* ManipulativeBastard: The title character in "Johnny Sunshine" appears to be one. He steals her car and her house and [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin leaves the narrator with nothing]].
64	* MinisculeRocking: "Glory" is only about a minute and a half long.
65	* NonIndicativeTitle: "Flower", which is not actually about flowers at all:
66	--> ''Every time I see your face I think of things unpure, unchaste\
67	I want to fuck you like a dog [...]\
68	Your lips a perfect "suck me" size\
69	You act like you're fourteen years old\
70	Everything you say is so obnoxious, funny, true and mean\
71	I want to be your blowjob queen''
72	** The title is possibly an UnusualEuphemism for a woman's genitalia... except it's not even that unusual. For instance, the common interpretation of Georgia O'Keeffe's paintings of flowers is that they're not ''really'' just paintings of flowers, even though O'Keeffe herself denied this interpretation.
73	* OneManSong: "Johnny Sunshine" and "Soup Star Joe".
74	* OneWordTitle: "Glory", "Canary", "Mezmerizing", "Canary", "Shatter", "Flower" and "Gunshy".
75	* PerishingAltRockVoice: "6′1″" runs on this, and a few other tracks also dip into low-energy singing.
76	* PunctuatedForEmphasis: "Girls! Girls! Girls!"
77	* SillyLoveSongs: "Mesmerizing":
78	--> ''With all of the time in the world to spend it\
79	Wild and unwise, I wanna be mesmerizing too\
80	Mesmerizing too\
81	Mesmerizing to you''
82	* TheSomethingSong: "Divorce Song".
83	* SongStyleShift: "Johnny Sunshine" starts off as a rousing midtempo rocker, then halfway through changes into a more anguished, minimalist ballad.
84	* ThisIsUnforgivable: "Divorce Song":
85	-->''And it's true that I stole your lighter\
86	And it's also true that I lost the map\
87	But when you said that I wasn't worth talking to\
88	I had to take you up on that''
89	* ThreeChordsAndTheTruth: "Glory", "Dance of the Seven Veils", and "Gunshy" all have only guitar backings. The production on the other songs still tends to be rather minimalist, though much less so than that of her earlier ''Girlysound'' recordings.

Context Music / ExileInGuyville