Told Ya So

Don't say I didn't warn you. As predicted in this space recently, the new Liz Phair album gets the expected, harrumphing lament from overwriting Inquirer music critic Tom Moon in yesterday's paper. Moon, in essence, scolds Phair for not acting her age, pointedly accusing "the divorced single mother" of trying "to erase every bit of goodwill lingering from . . . Exile in Guyville"and calling Liz Phair "one of the saddest chapters in the short history of alt-rock." A similar chapter is when one of the guys in Radiohead hummed along to an Anne Murray song in his local supermarket one night three years ago.

Look, I've heard virtually none of Phair's record, so I can't at all say whether it's worth listening to. But Moon's review -- like many others, I suspect -- exhibits an almost personal sense of hurt feelings, as if Phair has turned her back not on her own legacy but on True Fans such as Moon. Which leads me to wonder: If the work is even half-decent, will any critics have the stones to say so?