After relaunching as a frontline label in February, U.K.-based Chrysalis Records has signed singer-songwriter Liz Phair for the release of her forthcoming album. The deal was announced Wednesday (Sept. 9).
Phair’s signing with Chrysalis follows that of Laura Marling, whose Mercury Prize-nominated album Song For Our Daughter was released in April by the relaunched label in partnership with Partisan Records.
A two-time Grammy nominee, Phair scored a breakthrough with her influential 1993 debut album Exile in Guyville, which finished at the top of the Village Voice Pazz & Jop critics’ poll that year. She followed it up with five more studio albums, including the Gold-selling Whip-Smart and 2003’s pop-driven Liz Phair. The latter album’s lead single, “Why Can’t I?”, netted Phair her first and only Top 40 song in the U.S. to date.
In addition to her forthcoming album, last year Phair released the memoir Horror Stories via Random House as well as the single “Good Side,” her first new music release in nearly a decade. Next summer, she’s slated to support Alanis Morissette on the Canadian artist’s Jagged Little Pill 25th anniversary tour in Europe and North America.
“When I first heard Liz’s music in the ‘90s I was completely bowled over by the candour and emotional honesty of her song writing,” said Chrysalis CEO Jeremy Lascelles in a release announcing the deal. “The cultural impact she made, not only in America where she quickly achieved iconic status, but also here in the U.K. was profound.”
Blue Raincoat Chrysalis Group chairman Robin Millar added, “Perhaps the most conspicuous thing about my career as a producer is how few records I’ve been involved in. The reason is that I never took a job for money or where I didn’t truly revere the gift of the artists. We wanted to carry the same values into Chrysalis and to have Liz Phair as our first U.S. signing is nothing short of fantasy for me, as I was living and working in Northern California when Liz changed the game for female artists forever. As Jeremy quite rightly indicates, the new record is so much more than a return to form. It’s a truly great album. This record will not only blow Liz Phair fans away but has the potential to entrance a whole army of new fans.”
“I could not be more proud to be signed to Chrysalis, a legendary label that has found a new and exciting iteration with Robin and Jeremy,” said Phair in a statement. “From our first call, I was struck by their intelligence and musical sensitivity. The level of communication was beyond anything I had hoped for. They hear the way I hear. I feel like I have found a home at Chrysalis and that we will do great work together. I am humbled and honored to embark on this next part of my career in the sure and steady hands of some of the best in the business.”
