Pitchfork

Singer/schlong-rider Liz Phair has all the wrong connections. Apparently eager to record the single worst album of her career, she's enlisted Sean-brother Michael Penn to produce several songs for her upcoming fourth album. While she was at it, she also decided to co-write some material with Gary Clark of the band Danny Wilson, who has recently worked with such leading ladies of artistic vision as Natalie Imbruglia and Vitamin C. And, being on a roll, she figured she might as well also bring aboard Pete Yorn, the man currently filling the pop culture void left by Shawn Mullins' slip into obscurity.

To further clarify the abysmal state of goings-on at these sessions, Penn is known for his work with the Wallflowers and his wife Aimee Mann, while Yorn has focused more on TV and movie soundtracks like Dawson's Creek and Me, Myself, and Irene. The stink of failure is rife, people!

Phair recently performed three songs at the Breathe breast cancer benefit in Los Angeles with Third Eye Blind-- although those in attendance were not treated to any of her new material. Fans have been waiting for a new album from Phair since her 1998 album Whitechocolatespaceegg, which was, in turn, a long wait from Whip-Smart, the 1994 follow-up to her brilliant debut album, Exile in Guyville. But the slope has been a slippery one as we've watched her turn from a fearless sexual renegade with a Ph.D in Stones swagger and Flying Nun-style pop sensibilities to an adult-oriented crossover queen mindful of her P's and Q's. Capitol Records has not yet announced a release date for Phair's new piece, which once sported the classy working title of An Evening with Liz Phair. All we can do is sit back and hope that when it arrives, it sounds a little better than Paula Cole.