Pop Quiz: Liz Phair

Pop Quiz: Liz Phair

Aidin Vaziri | Liz Phair, a singer-songwriter still best known for her 1993 debut, "Exile in Guyville," a feisty song-for-song retort to the 1972 Rolling Stones album "Exile on Main Street," is up to her old tricks. On her latest, "Somebody's Miracle," she takes aim at Stevie Wonder's 1976 release, "Songs in the Key of Life." Well, kind of. She tells us that was the original intent, but there was a change of plans. Either way, it's an improvement on the Matrix-produced pop on her self-titled 2003 album.

Liz Phair
Q: Was this album really meant to be a song-by-song response to Stevie Wonder's 1976 album, "Songs in the Key of Life"?
A: Yeah, but I never got to finish it. It would have taken me at least another year.
Q: I never understood how "Exile in Guyville" was supposed to be an answer to "Exile on Main Street."
A: It really, really was.
Q: How do you respond to another album?
A: It's really simple. I was using "Exile" as both how to structurally make a record and also using Mick's lyrics to stand in for the guy I was involved with at the time. Whatever he said, I would do a song that refuted what he was talking about. It was like a conversation with that record.
Q: But how could you be mad at Stevie Wonder?
A: I so could have done it but it would take a Herculean effort on my part.
Q: Next time try responding to the Strokes. Their albums are only like 15 minutes long.
A: You know, that's not a bad idea.