"Divorce Song"

Liz Phair
(Matador, 1993)

Phair's greatest strength as a lyricist is her deadlock grip on the attraction-repulsion games of relationships. Here she zooms in on the exact instant a marriage collapses -- starting in the middle of a sentence, piling up her characters' petty complaints, concessions, and resentments to show that they love each other deeply and know they're still not going to make it. She's also a master of song structure, and this one's essentially one very very long verse, spilling out everything the narrator feels at that moment.

-- Douglas Wolk