Soberish

‘Soberish’ sounds more like her early work, with its lo-fi stylings and ramshackle guitars. Lyrically, this record teases her more sentimental side, but even then, she openly admits to not wanting to reveal her true self to the listener.

Revels in nervy song structures and unexpected instrumental touches even on its more straightforward tracks, such as the "Polyester Bride"-echoing "Good Side." The horns that rise up to accompany Phair's solidified sense of self on the slow-burning "Soul Sucker" give her inner journey a heroic feel, while her voice's airy upper register makes the plea at the heart of "Lonely St." even more potent.

Phair is at her best when she confidently picks a lane. Soberish is uneven because of her indecision, but it's still her best album since 1998's Whitechocolatespaceegg.

A mixed bag then, but a welcome return that promises much. [Jul 2021, p.80]

Soberish marks the welcome return of an artist at last comfortable with her legacy and ready to celebrate it.

These are all songs that, just like the rest of Phair’s finest moments, have a delicious knack for becoming lodged in your brain.

Soberish succeeds largely because Phair is no longer asking for tolerance. She is simply, fully, being herself.

It's not the revelation of Exile in Guyville, but then again, few records are. Instead, it's a moving collection of great songs that Phair invests with confidence and intellect.

The moments here that feel most genuinely lived-in are the ones where she opens up and demonstrates her unique genius at articulating the real life hope, fear, disappointment, and ambivalence of an inveterate romantic who wanders through life always on guard against getting burned by her own desires.

For her part, Phair still has a knack for sharp melodies and bite-sized lyrical gems (“I tried to stay sober, but the bar is so inviting,” she quips on the album’s title track), and the technical simplicity of her voice is often its best feature.

Soberish starts off strong, opening with the infectious “Spanish Doors” and building to “Hey Lou,” whose chorus is the most invasive earworm on an album that has plenty of them. ... And while the orchestral elements add some much-needed texture, too many of the songs unfold at the same midtempo pace, an effect that makes the title track, for one, seem much longer than it actually is.

Soberish is a record of push and pull, of doubt and regained confidence. ... Phair is the queen of rock reinvention, and as this album proves, she’s got a few lives left.

A cohesive record, on Soberish Phair sounds polished, clean and equipped with a new arsenal of songs about breakups, addiction and small glimpses into her inner workings.

Musically, this is unforgivably mediocre. A memorable chorus will occasionally appear from nowhere, as on Hey Lou (and Soul Sucker wins points for its unexpected nod to Blue Boy’s Remember Me), but for the most part the coffee-table pop on offer here is remarkable only for being so forgettable.

Songs like “Spanish Steps” and the title track recall the lo-fi sound of her critically lauded ’90s albums, while “Ba Ba Ba” and “Good Side” embrace the polish of her critically denounced 2000s albums. [Jul 2021, p.33]