so stylusmagazine has a feature on the song, on how perfect the song is and how beautiful it is. i agree. i just love how the song can take several meanings to different ears.

In 1993, Liz Phair could do no wrong. Her Stones-skewing, Pazz & Jop-topping debut seemed to usher in a renaissance of distaff rock, while Liz herself basked in the Next Big Thing glow. Ten years and countless “blowjob queen” jokes later, she was a critical piñata, with a Matrix-helmed single prominently featured in Win a Date with Tad Hamilton. It’s not of concern here whether Phair’s career has proven a disappointing downward spiral from day-one (as some would argue), or whether she’s simply (and admirably) done her own thing, heedless of ‘cred issues or projected expectations. What matters is that, in between Exile in Guyville and Liz Phair, she managed to produce one of the most legitimately perfect songs ever put to record.

“Nashville” opens with a shimmering, relaxed, nearly minute-long instrumental passage. Then, around the 55-second mark, her vocal comes in:
They don't know what they like so much about it
They just go for any shiny old bauble
And nobody sparkles like you
Earlier on her sophomore record, 1994’s Whip-Smart, she announced, “I have looked all over the place / But you have got my favorite face,” while also noting of her new-found mate, “you fuck like a volcano and you’re everything to me.” Up until she went and devoted a song to the wonders of “H.W.C.,” Liz did dirty better than anyone else in the game, “Flower” notwithstanding. Material that, in lesser hands, would’ve registered as merely prurient or down-right juvenile, Phair imbued with a natural sort of glee and even grace, whether warning that she’s “a real cunt in spring” or noting the plus-side of taking it from behind (“that way we can fuck and watch TV”).

When it comes to writing about the Big Two (love and sex, duh), Liz is her generation’s premier lyricist, rivaled only by, if anyone, Lucinda Williams and John Darnielle. What all three clearly get is that the magic is in the details, sweating the small stuff, painting The Big Picture in modest (but precise) strokes.
But I can't imagine it in better terms
Then naked, half-awake, about to shave and go to work
This is cinematic songwriting in the best sense. Phair doesn’t overreach by attempting to cram Dr. Zhivago into four minutes and forty-two seconds. Instead, we get a snapshot—at most, a brief scene. Personally, I always think of one of those indelible static shots that Tsai Ming-liang loves so much: two people ostensibly lost in thought, seemingly effortlessly composed within the frame, filmed from an interesting angle. It’s fleeting, by nature, but lovely while it lasts, and often more poignant from the vantage point of memory.
And I'm starting to think it could happen to me like it did to you
And I'm starting to actually feel it seep through the slick divide now
I don't crack the door too far for anyone who's pushing too hard on me
This is what they’re thinking, of course—whose mind has this particular thought not crossed, at one point or another? You’re hesitant to dive head-first into full-on intimacy because, well, you’ve been there before. Things have turned out badly. You’ve been burned. And as your skin has thickened, you’ve grown more skeptical of those butterflies that reside in the pit of your stomach before the daunting challenge of familiarity inevitably rears its head. But at this moment, “naked, half-awake, about to shave and go to work,” it all feels so totally right that you’re seriously tempted—perhaps against your better judgment—to let your guard down and just make googly eyes right back at her all morning.

http://www.stylusmagazine.com/feature.php?ID=1824

I don't think they really understood that song.

No I don't think so either.

oh please, you all didn't understand the song until jerermyengle explained it all of us.

still, it means different things to different people.

I didn't ever think it was a snapshot of a scene from a relationship.
Before I even walked onto this forum, I knew the song was about her and EIG. I mean; the first 2 lines give it away. Oh, and I'd read about how it was about her success from Guyville in one of the reviews for Whipsmart. I was a Liz Phair fan whey before I came on any Liz Phair forums.

But yeah, Jeremy Engle did explain the whole "Naked, half awake, about to shave and go to work...." thing to everyone, and that's how I know that.
But I never thought it was about a relationship.

This song is one of my top five favorite Liz Songs and it has very little to do with the lyrical content. The lyrics to nashville i think tend be a bit over-rated. I have to admit that one of my pet peeves is the beleagured artist who feel the need to pontificate on the demands of fame in their lyrics. Honestly, who can relate to that? Seems like so much navel gazing, which is what songwriters do I guess, but this particular iteration of the profession is a bit off -putting. Liz seems to have suffciently cloaked the true message of the song to throw off most but I still have to admit that the lyrics aren't what endear me to the song. The song does have a few deft lyrical touches (the metaphor of the slick divide) but i wouldn't put this forth as one of Liz's best lyrical works.


The twin attractions to this song for me are Liz's vocal delivery and the lush almost dream-like tone of the musical arrangement. Listening to the song I find myself be more drawn in by the vocal delivery than what she is actually saying (it could be her grocery list for all I care). For me this song is the protypical song of why I love the singing of someone who isn't that great of a singer in the technical sense. Liz trying to hit those high parts is just so endearing, especially the "staaaaaarting to seep" part. Liz's straining quality in her vocals projects much more emotion for me than some singer with a great set of vocal cords. For me the vocals in this song set the tone of Nashville to a much greater degree than the lyrical content.

The musical almost gives off a fugue like feel, with a thick dreamy quality that pervades as you listen to the song. Listen to the song on a guy stereo system and you hear the low bass rumble that entails most of the song and provides the backbone that the rest of the arangement is built on. The track seems at once both incredibly lush but at the same time sparse. There aren't an abundance of instruments on the track but it seems to have a "thickness" that envelopes you. The oddly ellipitical quitar riff wobbles to and fro but accentuates the bass track perfectly. The guitar track won't knock you over with guitar wankery fret work or amaze you with a solo but it serves it's cause very well. The guitar has a hypnotic quality that lulls you as you listen. The drums are perfect, letting you know they are there but not overpowering in the mix. And as jules and vincent always say, it's the little things that you miss. The tinkling of the chimes at the beginning of the song and the lilting sax outro are nice little touches that garnish the track nicely. Used throughout the song they would have been cloying and obtrusive but presented in measured quanities they add greatly to the over-all sound of the track.

Contrary to what liz said back in 2003, there is a Liz Phair "sound" and this song is one of the handful that I feel define that "sound".

Rob, you are money. I agree with you on the lyrics completely. I wish more people (here, there, and everywhere) would talk about songs the way you just did. The world would be a cooler place.

As for the "Liz Phair sound", I think what you're talking about is more the "Brad Wood/Liz Phair sound", which is sorely missed these days. Oh well... at least they captured it on tape while the going was good.

This song's in my top 10. I fucking love it.

It's definatly one of her best. I've lost intrest in her now. But the way Rob described that song made me want to slip it back on.

I can't wait til the album comes out!

This song is the reason I fell in love with Liz. I remember my then-highschool-boyfriend putting Whip Smart into our friends car stereo and at first, I wondered- who was this horny lady my boyfriend was so in to. Then Nashville came on and wow..who can even explain the feeling. It was the music and lyrical pattern that drew me in. I really wish she would play Nashville live. 6 shows I've been to and no Nashville. When I had the chance to talk to her in New York, she said she hasn't played it in years and would have to practice before she could ever play it live again.

Here's a testament to the breadth of Liz Phair fans:

I think Extraordinary is a better song than Nashville in every sense!

Ha!

^You're gonna have to justify that

yeah, by killing yourself

I second that.

Poor Liz...

...not that anyone in hear particularly minds repeating themselves...

Ha!

hmm...Extraordinary better than Nashville? I'll take a different tack and say that I don't find them really comparable. To clarify, they don't seem like songs cut from the same cloth so i can't say I have really spent too much time saying one is better than the other. Nashville is very much a mood piece, meant to evoke a much different feeling than the heavy guitar pop of Extraordinary. A much better comparison would be to Supernova. When I first heard the self titled album Extraordinary, my first reaction was that it seemed like a blending of the guitar crunch of Supernova and sweet melodicism of Never Said. It is the only Matrix track I don't totally abhor (to borrow a term from blair). Much like Nashville I could take or leave the lyrics, though I do love the primitive fix line.

This song's in my top 10. I love fucking to it.

That’s nice dear.