Back in 1998, Liz Phair attempted a subtle compromise between indie rock and adult rock, Whitechocolatespaceegg, with dullish results and disappointing sales. On the new Liz Phair, she teams with Avril Lavigne hitmakers the Matrix as well as Michael Penn, Pete Yorn and Yorn's producer R. Walt Vincent. Downplaying her melodic quirks to blend in and chase hits, Phair doesn't even play much guitar on her own album.

And yet beyond the nearly anonymous single "Why Can't I?" there's no denying her lusty, whimsical and disarmingly direct lyrical presence. No other Lilith Fair vet would try to get her record in America's malls while extolling the beauty-enhancing properties of "hot white cum," driving home the phrase seventeen times.

Newly divorced and with a kindergartner in tow, Phair is once again ready for randy singles action, yet she's still a responsible mom. On "Rock Me," the punchiest of four Matrix collaborations, she aims to seduce an Xbox-playing stud who doesn't "even know who Liz Phair is." On "Little Digger," the most contemplative of the five Penn productions, she watches her son struggle to comprehend the implications of Mommy's new male friend. Both match the lofty songwriting standard of her 1993 debut, Exile in Guyville, and there's plenty more hook-y vitality. Phair is a fine lyricist, and although she's lost some musical identity, she's gained potential Top Forty access. The rest is up to radio, and you.

“IRM”

Fashioned to mimic the sound of a magnetic resonance imaging or MRI, "IRM" (the French designation for the brain scan) grew out of Gainsbourg’s love of the sound of the clickety-clack of medical machinery. The IRM album project also marked the fulfillment of two goals for the singer: to document a traumatic experience, and to record an album with Beck. Though her co-creator and producer didn’t necessarily know the details of her water-skiing accident and resulting cerebral hemorrhage (which lead to the IRM of the song's title), he somehow knew how to handle the material. "Beck had a way of guessing what I was thinking and feeling without me telling him," said Gainsbourg. "We never discussed these things explicitly."