“Whip-Smart” by Liz Phair

"Whip-Smart" is the title track of Liz Phair's second album, released on Matador in 1994, and it's the moment she let a little bubblegum into her world. The chorus borrows from Malcolm McLaren's 1983 hit "Double Dutch", which is why McLaren shares the writing credit, and Phair turns that hook into something both sly and catchy.

Brad Wood is practically a one-man band here, playing drums, bass, synthesizer and guitar alongside Phair, singing backup, and recording and mixing it with Casey Rice. The result is lean, bouncy and a little bit wry. Cashbox made it their Pick of the Week and figured it was an even more infectious pop single than "Supernova", the album's first single, the kind of song that could win over listeners who'd found her too cryptic.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.