ALBUM REVIEW

We don’t have to wait for Hole’s new album to see if a feisty female rocker can mature without losing her edge. Liz Phair’s 1993 “Exile in Guyville” flaunted taboos and lobbed literate volleys at male domination, though without petulance or man-hating. After 1994’s less-focused “Whip-Smart,” she returns, now married and a mom, walking new wires with even more poise and agility.

Here she’s torn between the nurturing and numbing qualities of stability. She’s a jaundiced observer mocking suburban fantasies and lost dreams in “Big Tall Man” and “Uncle Alvarez.” Yet she craves steadiness, casting herself as a boy remorseful for hurting his mother in “Only Son” and a daughter wanting her reason-spouting mom’s endorsement of her new guy in “What Makes You Happy.”

Complementing these crafty, character-rich short stories is a range of alt-rock, singer-songwriter strumming and the Stonesy strut that closes “Johnny Feelgood”--with memorable hooks that belie Phair’s matter-of-fact delivery.

“I know I was born to lead a double life of murder, strife and misery / And when I find it, I know I’ll make sense of me,” she sings in “Perfect World.” The search, though, is so rewarding.

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Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor) to four stars (excellent).

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Hear Liz Phair

* Excerpts from “Whitechocolatespaceegg” and other recent releases are available on The Times’ World Wide Web site. Point your browser to: http://video.nohib.com/soundclips