Whitechocolate What?

Yet, all of this backstage garbage now seems trivial. Somehow Phair has managed to make her most eclectic, mature album to date. Sure, she may be a wealthy, married mom, but from the sound of it, she's no less confused than the rest of us. On the minimalist confessional "Perfect World" she imagines "being bald with you." Then it's reckless sex in the back of a convertible in "Johnny Feelgood." Phair changes her point of view as quickly as relationships tangle. "Love is nothing like they say," she sings. "You gotta pick up the pieces every day." The uncomfortably naked "Go on Ahead" tackles postpartum depression, Phair declaring, "It's a death in our love that has brought us here/ It's a birth that has changed our lives/ It's a place I hope we'll be leaving soon." The conviction and stinging jealously in her voice recall the despair of Exile's "Divorce Song."

Musically, Phair bolsters her lyrical confusion by swapping genres while maintaining her effortless grasp of melody. With "Baby Got Going," she veers into western swing -- harmonica blazing -- as the title track stomps, grinds, and buzzes with the kind of dissonance that would make Pavement grin. More often, though, the album grooves rather than rocks. "Polyester Bride," "Ride," and the blissful chorus of "Big Tall Man" all float and fascinate like nearly perfect pop curios.

In the end, however, words -- not musical direction -- define whitechocolatespaceegg. Neither wholly defeatist nor optimistic, Phair's complicated thoughts about the thorny pressures and little pleasures that define any relationship will confound partisans on both sides with their ambiguity and nuance. You may be left pondering the shaky future of her personal life, but at its expense, Liz Phair continues her evolution, remaking herself as an expressive, unsatisfied pop artist.

-- Dave McCoy