The problem with reissues these days and the popular deluxe edition format is an emphasis on looking back, rather than looking forward. Another problem is that when you look back to a record from the past and it doesn't sound much cop.

This is sadly the case with Liz Phair's Exile in Guyville, a song-by-song response to Exile on Main Street from a female perspective - though this may be lost on those familiar with that Stones' album. Phair was the poster-girl for a certain 90's feminism (often cited by Elizabeth Wurtzel) - there is a notion that in academic terms she was a potent symbol; but as Steve Albini once said, 'A fucking chore to listen to.'

The eighteen-songs here might lyrically stand up, but for the most part it is stock indie-alternative rock - Phair coming out of Chicago from the same scene that spawned Urge Overkill and the Matador label. It's widely concurred that Exile is her work of genius, follow-up Whip Smart a let down, and the two major albums that followed one of the biggest sell-outs in the history of music.

I'm not sure that's entirely fair, as the later albums had better songs on, even if Phair probably had more in common with Sheryl Crow than Sleater Kinney in the end. Like Courtney Love, the impression of someone using the underground as stepping stone for a career on a major label is inescapable. It's sad that Phair's first release on her new label is her feted debut album.

It's kind of clear that Phair set the tone for female singers that followed - so is to blame for Alanis Morissette, Meredith Brooks, and Avril Lavigne. Most of the songs here are pretty dull alternative rock with a singer who sounds like Suzanne Vega - Vega seeming to be the model for a lot of female-singer-songwriters these days (e.g. Laura Marling).

It's not all bad - 'Fuck and Run' gets away with dodgy lyrics worthy of Gainsbourg ('even when I was twelve...'), single 'Never Said' is chock full of hooks, and 'Stratford-On-Guy' is Phair's finest moment to date. Ironically the DVD that accompanies this album is the interesting part - though underlining the academic-interpretation of the record. I just wonder if people are talking about the record itself or what it symbolises? Is Exile in Guyville just some MOR-alternative rock that fits an academic niche and reflects a female zeitgeist that it's OK to wank over?