Juliana Hatfield
(Ye Olde Records)
Oh, Juliana, will you ever win? Your baby doesn't love you anymore. He lied and he lied and he lied. And then he lied a little more. And the protagonists in your songs - your autobiographical songs, according to the press release - are beautiful girls living in ugly worlds, walking away from bad relationships. Oh, the pathos.
Maybe if you weren't such a damn sourpuss, Juliana, you wouldn't have these problems. Honestly, though, Hatfield's tenth solo album is filled with some catchy choruses, like the hooky "Now I'm Gone." The drama in the opener "The Fact Remains" does seem pretty genuine too, with Hatfield sounding less like the woman with the girly voice and more like a woman who's seen some dark times and managed to come back. Taken together with the album's title, the song sets the mood for what could be an empowering set of songs, in the best sense. But after all this time, she's still writing lyrics that sound like lines out of an angst ridden teen's diary: "Away in the dark you made me feel something/ and gave me a reason to keep trying"; "You're so alone/you want to die and nobody knows." Moments like this diminish the strong elements of How To Walk Away and make you wonder if there's depth to her so-called life.
Standout Tracks: "Now I'm Gone," "The Fact Remains" MIKE SHANLEY
