Continuing my list of best debut albums (with quite a few caveats)…

Liz Phair – Exile in Guyville (1993)

The album I most enjoyed revisiting for these posts was Liz Phair’s classic indie rock debut. I’ve long loved this record but giving it a spin for the first time in a long time reminded me of just how special it is.

The seeds of Exile in Guyville started on a trio of cassette tapes Phair recorded in her childhood bedroom using the name Girly-Sound. Eleven of Guyville‘s 18 tracks appeared on those lo-fi recordings, which were passed around in her native Chicago and led to her first contract.

Phair conceived the album as a female companion to The Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main Street, with each song mapping stylistically or thematically to the earlier album’s tracklist. She aimed to puncture the obnoxiousness of the male-dominated indie rock scene, spiritually epitomized by The Stones’ drunken classic.

The result was a collection of sexually frank (and often explicit) lo-fi rock songs, bursting with attitude and creativity, giving voice to the insecurities and desires of twentysomething women in a way few artists ever had.

Singles ‘Never Said’ and ‘Stratford-On-Guy’ performed relatively well and the album became an unlikely hit, eventually reaching Gold status. Despite some hits later in her career, Exile in Guyville remains her best-selling album.

It’s also easily her most critically-acclaimed release, topping the 1993 Village Voice Pazz & Jop poll and showing up high on many lists of the decade’s best albums.