Liz Phair’s brutal honesty has always been her most potent weapon. Born in 1967 and raised in the Chicago area, Phair began mingling with the music crowd as a student at Oberlin College, inspiring her to learn guitar and eventually write and record three homemade cassettes under the name Girly-Sound. Many of those songs, including the deadpan confessional “F**k and Run,” would eventually make up her 1993 debut album, Exile In Guyville. Loosely modeled after The Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main St., the instant indie classic is loaded with diaristic declarations, casual f-bombs, scrappy guitar licks, and plenty of sex, swagger, and rock ‘n’ roll. Phair took both the controversy and acclaim and ran with it, landing a hit with 1994’s Whip-Smart and its punchy alt-rock single “Supernova,” then reinventing herself as a Top 40 contender on 2003’s glossed-up self-titled album produced by pop hit-making team The Matrix. Decades into her career, Phair remains unpredictable—and unapologetically herself—whether she’s throwing up a middle finger at the haters on 2010’s Funstyle or digging into her indie roots for 2021’s Soberish.