Recorded at Idful Music, Chicago, Illinois and Compass Point Studios, Nassau, The Bahamas in February 1994.
All songs written by Liz Phair.
"Supernova" was nominated for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance in the 37th Annual Grammy Awards.
Casual and detached, Liz Phair's sarcastic elegance merges her Ivy League intellectualism with a near-obnoxious blast of do-it-yourself power chords and I-told-ya-so's. Building off the success of her heavily hyped EXILE IN GUYVILLE debut, WHIP-SMART affirms Phair's reign over the hipper-than-thou corner of the pop industry. Using her cover-girl good looks to her advantage, Phair plays the part only to sucker the hecklers into her lair. Then she cuts them down to size, as if to say, "I'm above arguing with you."
Her music exudes jangly power-pop guitars and schoolgirl piano fiddlings. Within that, Phair is aware of her limitations and embraces them as individualistic expression, rather than a setback. Starting WHIP-SMART with a song called "Chopsticks" only shows the confidence with which she stares down her critics. Phair might be the next indie-chick hood ornament, but she's no one's girl. WHIP-SMART will show those who were still unaware that Ms. Phair will be the most name-dropped female rocker of the year.
Professional Reviews
Rolling Stone (9/22/94, p.91) - 4 Stars - Excellent - "...She's a slacker poet of the first degree...[and] has once again written and `directed' a bunch of entertaining, affecting songs....This brainiac bad girl deserves a lot of credit for not being cowed by her classic debut..." Q Magazine (12/94, p.139) - 3 Stars - Good - "...resonates with [EXILE IN] GUYVILLE's brittle, lo-fi verve....The songs...lack GUYVILLE's snappy hooks, while her lyrical explicitness can't hold the shock-of-the-new it once did....That's what you get for making exhilarating first albums..."
Alternative Press (12/94, p.92) - "...If anything's omnipresent on WHIP, it may be Phair's ability to deploy her rare pop talent with intuitive calculation..."
Village Voice (2/28/95) - Ranked #6 in the Village Voice's 1994 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll.
NME (Magazine) (10/01/94, p.48) - 6 - Good - "...WHIP-SMART is just too cool for words..."
