Juliana Hatfield
How to Walk Away
2008 Ye Olde Records
Grade: A-
GPA: 3.6
By: Brent Owen
Juliana Hatfield is one of our most over looked female troubadours. She’s resilient, talented, and mysteriously charismatic. Her eyes stare sultry from behind her trademark red locks, seductively challenging you to come over and fix her.
On How to Walk Away, Juliana writes like a woman who has evolved. And since her career has returned to the indie scene from which she emerged in the late 80’s and early 90’s – this might be the first you’ve heard of her since her one episode story arch on My So Called Life. This doesn’t sound like sinisterly innocent girl that sang “Universal Heart-Beat”, “My Sister”, or “Spin the Bottle”. Her voice sounds hardened, experienced, and more confident – she doesn’t sound like a girl looking for answers, but rather, a woman who has come to terms with answers.
This record does feel like an instruction book where the consistently misunderstood Hatfield imparts value of her experience to anyone who will listen.
As a result of the new found confidence in her vocals, there also seems to be more confidence in her lyric writing as she injects a healthy sense of blunt sexuality into How to Walk Away. While she keeps the songs from getting raunchy or vulgar – but she gets a little bawdy a couple of times. “My Baby…” is a song about a relationship that has been drained of all things affectionate but sustained merely on meaningless sex. The emptiness and boredom with which she sings helps to drive this song’s theme deep into the psyche. And on the song “Just Lust” she writes an ode to the one-night-stand. Her emotional disconnect as the female narrator causes a jarring role reversal that makes the song almost disconcerting. We’re so used to the image of men acting out of lust that it’s almost unsettling to hear a woman singing about acting on the same motivation.
“Such a Beautiful Girl” rings of the beautiful earnestness that a younger Juliana was known for writing. The sparse arrangement, though, doesn’t seem to quite fit with the programmed drum machine that provides the all-to-steady backbeat throughout the song. Although I must say that it’s in this song that I feel Juliana captures her own essence the best when she sings: “She such a beautiful girl and she lives in an ugly world.”
Previous Albums
Sittin’ In a Tree EP (w/Frank Smith)
The White Broken Line: Live Recordings
Made In
In Exile Deo
Gold Stars
Juliana’s Pony: Total System Failure
Beautiful Creature
Bed
Please Do Not Disturb EP
Only Everything
Become What Your Are
I See You EP
Hey Babe
I was beginning to think that all was lost, Pop ruled the charts whether it be pop rock, hip hop, or the dreaded Pop Punk; it seemed that any music that had passion and grace was lost and gone forever. It seemed to have gone the way of the Dodo - but instead it had simply become allusive and improbable like Sasquatch or the Loch Ness Monster. It was there but well hidden. In the midst of this exile, it began to heal and grow again, to gather its strength for a triumphant return. At a time when bands like Fall Out Boy and Nickel Back were considered the “cutting edge of rock”, I seriously thought about taking my cd collection and holing up in a self-imposed exile at my own personal Fortress of Solitude. Only to resurface for the occasional alcoholic beverage and so I can yell at the neighborhood kids, bitterly ranting: “You call that Music?” Luckily for me it didn’t have to go that far. With the advent of music on the Web, wonderful bands can be found at anytime from any home; and not a moment to soon.
With bands emerging onto the scene like My Morning Jacket, J.J. Grey and Mofro, Drive by Truckers, The Hold Steady and Parlor Mob, I think we’re gonna be ok. If you haven’t had the luck to hear these bands yet, I suggest you go to your nearest independent record store or computer and check them out immediately. Along with these relative new comers some old friends have returned to put smiles on our faces and our fists once again pumping in the air. Led Zeppelin finally played a reunion show. Smashing Pumpkins released Zeitgeist; a record that knocked my fucking socks off. The Foo Fighters released their award winning Echoes, Silence, Patience, and Grace. The Black Crows released War Paint, their most progressive a magnificent record to date. And with the demise of one super group, an old favorite has reemerged with the reunion of Stone Temple Pilots. A lot of people might want to give me shit for my excitement over their return but all is fair in love and war; and I can’t lie I still have love for Wieland and co. And of course, there is the band that never really left, Red Hot Chili Peppers; they released Stadium Arcadium, a bold double album that was truly pleasing to the ear. Last but not least Weezer released its third self-titled album (aka “The Red Album”), and it’s currently in heavy rotation anywhere I go. I can’t get “Heart Song” out of my mind - I heart “Heart Song”…
O Shit, here comes Hanna Montana and the Jonas Brothers. The battle maybe won but the war has just begun
by: Chad PerryIf we were only to define an artist’s success by their role in the pop-culture lexicon then our view on all things creative would fit nicely into a little box. And as we all should know by now, nothing truly creative fits nicely into a little box...unless of course that box happens to belong to Pandora.
That having been said; enter: Pink Floyd.
Most people, when asked to name a Pink Floyd album tend to have quick recall based on commercial success, therefore it almost always comes back to Dark Side of the Moon (1973) and The Wall (1979). This means that people often remain oblivious to the seven albums they released before recording the landmark Dark Side album. That record, of course, would launch the band into the stratosphere and begin the most prolific and commercially successful period in the band’s career; but that is not where their story began.
The earlier albums are often overlooked by the careless listener and their singles rarely get any radio airplay, even from stations that claim to be classic rock or album oriented in their programming. I hope that the following musings on the early career of Pink Floyd’s will ignite a desire for some to seek out the origins of these icons.
Let us travel back to 1967 in
Following “Astronomy Domine” is “Lucifer Sam”, an equally compelling song about a mysterious, Siamese cat that is always by your side. The slight tempo changes as well as complex chord progressions are little nuances often overlooked by the casual music fan. And once the song is over, the question still remains: Is Lucifer Sam just a cat, or are you the one that is sitting beside something bigger?
The next two songs are “Matilda Mother” and “Flaming” and they aptly lead us further along on our journey, while continuing to delve into even more absurdist topics. And then we come to “Pow R. Toc H.” a piano based jazz tune that takes the album in a whole new direction; a direction of playful whimsy where anything can happen. The soft trickle of piano notes welcomes us like the slow burn after the first swallow of good scotch. No one is quite sure what the name truly means but we do know that at around the half-way point we are jerked back by that hallucinatory ride that is The Piper. Floyd finds the psychedelia without losing the dark, smoky jazz that welcomed us at the beginning of the song.
“Pow R. Toc H.” is much like the second hill on a rollercoaster, that breath you get at the crest of the second peak, just before once again being sent barreling down into a terrifying free-fall.
It truly is a slight breath right before “Take Up Thy Stethoscope and Walk” sends you hurling down the other side, through the loop and into the flats once again. The driving opening drum line and pop feel will wake up any listener who has truly had an out of body experience and will bring them back to lucidity.
After the awakening, be ready because the ride isn’t over yet. Instead you return to space by way of the musical ship known as “Interstellar Overdrive”. This is an ugly discordant mess that somehow managers to sound like music when logic and reason says that it shouldn’t. It sounds like the members of the band simply picked up their instruments and each began playing different songs at the same time.
Now that you are flung into the deepest reaches of your mind, you will meet Grimble Crumble who is the main character in “The Gnome”. And what do you expect gnomes to do but sit in their homes drinking wine? And once again the formidable question is raised - is this song about a gnome or is it about you?
Now onto “Chapter 24”, this is more of a movement than it really is a song, almost as if it belongs to a larger piece of work. It’s completed in six abstract stages and in the seventh we are returned to the beginning of the piece. “Chapter 24” is by far the trippiest song in the collection as it refers to the cyclical nature of the universe and our inability to break the cycle. The song also raises questions about the truths their parents asked them to blindly accept, such as: change returns success, action brings good fortune, and the fact the nothing can be destroyed completely. After listening to “Chapter 24” everybody should feel better about their position in the cosmos, because we are all part of something bigger.
Finally, “Scarecrow” and “Bike” close out The Piper. These two songs will ground the even best individual. The simple clip-clop sound of “Scarecrow” is reminiscent of the old nursery school songs that we all once knew. And “Bike” begins with the description of a bike that you would like but will never attain. The narrator has no house but does know a mouse named Gerald who just so happens to be a good mouse; and they know a girl that would fit into my world. Finally, the last 30 seconds of the album hurl the listener backward; once again through the wild ride from which they had just come, left to wonder where exactly they might land.
Listen. Enjoy. Take a trip with Pink Floyd and even if no “trip” is taken, you can’t help but follow the hallowed sound of a Piper all the way to the gates of dawn.
The Avett BrothersI'm not sure how The Avett Brothers do it - they make beautiful, irresistible songs that are so achingly personal that you can't help but feel uncomfortable as you squirm in your seat. On the second in the band’s “Gleam Series” of EP’s - there are only six songs but the brothers make every note count. What stands out initially here is that there seems to be a lingering darkness throughout all of the entire collection. But the band wades perfectly through these sparse arrangements by playing their own brand well-honed roots music.
The opening song “Tear Down the House” is an absolutely beautiful piece that takes the listener by surprise. It’s almost alarming as you listen to this kind voice with almost detached glee at his lack of sentimentality. The way he can be so callous but so serene in regards to his own indifference gives the song a palpable tension you might not expect.
By far the darkest of the songs is “Murder in the City”. Lyrically it’s almost a will and testament, giving his family instructions as to what to do upon his death. It’s not so much an alarming suicide note as it is a reflection on one’s own mortality. The last lines of the song are piercing as he leaves the family with these parting words: “And always remember there was nothing worth sharing, like the love that let us share our name.”
If you liked The Avett Brothers’ breakthrough album Emotionalism – then you will love these songs, as the band endears itself to you even more. You won’t find them to be as much fun but more sobering then the last time around, but you’ll still hear the group’s irresistible charm and revel in the morbid direction they have taken here. And if you aren’t familiar with this bluegrass/folk outfit, then you’ll probably appreciate these songs also – but you have to keep in mind that they aren’t always this miserable.
Previous Albums:
Emotionalism
The Gleam
Four Thieves Gone: The Robbinsville Sessions
Live, Vol. 2
Mignonette
A
Beach Boys
