Record Reviews
Some GirlsCrushing Love (Koch)
A mainstay of underground music since the Blake Babies' heyday, Juliana Hatfield can always be counted on to produce worthwhile alt-rock in her sweet, lilting style. Some Girls brings Hatfield together with Blake Babies drummer Freda Love and bassist Heidi Gluck. Disarming their listeners with stealthy hooks, they're under the radar and deserving of your attention.
On their second disc, the trio (which shares their name with a California hardcore band) continues much in the same vein as their 2003 release Feel It. This collection of easygoing, personal songs packs both jangle and melody, with enough of a kick to compete with harder-rocking acts. Each of the women contributes lyrics and vocals, which showcase their individual strengths while not straying far from a shared center. "Rock or Pop" struts around its subject, while banjo punctuates the sparkly "On My Own Again." The album opener, "Is This What I've Been Waiting For?," distills the project's various impulses into four midtempo minutes of sturdy, punchy chords, Hatfield's introspective sing-speak supplemented with handclaps and frothy backing vocals.
Crushing Love only disappoints with the poor quality of its DVD bonus footage, which has such awful sound as to render it completely pointless. Additions like these are considered a selling point, but this disc stands on its own as a solid example of that arcane form of expression so basic as to feel novel - seasoned, old-fashioned American rock & roll.
- Amanda Langston
Some Girls