Cool, Tall, Vulnerable, And Luscious

Liz Phair “Perfect World”

“Perfect World” is a song about low-grade envy, a “grass is always greener on the other side” sort of feeling that makes you feel like there’s always something better than what you have and who you are. And like, there is? There’s no “having it all” so there’s always something someone else has that you just can’t have. Liz Phair embodies that feeling in this song, but then puts a twist on it at the end of the chorus – I’d like to be this and that, but even if I changed everything I’d still want to be with you. The “you” of it doesn’t even seem like a factor through a lot of this, it’s like she’s carried away in the thought but get pulled back to reality by a real life love. Even in the bridge when she imagines the women in his world – “just sitting next to a mortal makes their skin crawl” – there’s still the sense that those women don’t matter as much to him as she does, and she’s loved for exactly who she is. (And surely those women have entered the thought of being cool and talented like her.) Phair’s melodies and harmony parts in this song are gorgeous, particularly on that bridge, but it’s a low key sort of loveliness. The song is beautiful but doesn’t strain to be pretty, there’s little bits of darkness and unsanded edges to it. She wishes to be cool, tall, vulnerable, and luscious in the hook, and I think she attains three of the four in the song.

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