Juliana Hatfield: There´s always another girl (2011)

Juliana lo ha vuelto a hacer. Sé de sobras que con la Hatfield me puede la subjetividad y el afecto personal hacia una música que me lleva acompañando desde hace ya dos décadas. Podría decirse que hemos madurado juntos en estos últimos años. Y es que en este There´s always another girl (2011), Juliana Hatfield ha vuelto a saciar mi hambre de estar cerca de su voz susurrante, de sus cálidas melodías, de sus frases de guitarras descarnadas. Ha vuelto a componer otro puñado de canciones que sin duda pasarán desapercibidas para el gran público Indie, pero que a mí realmente me emocionan. Esas pequeñas píldoras dulzonas que Juliana lleva facturando desde aquellos lejanos tiempos de Juliana Hatfield 3 o las Black Babies tienen aquí su exponente en cortes como Someone else´s problems, Sex and drugs, Don´t wanna dance, Candy wrappers, Stray kids, Taxicab, There´s always another girl…
En este nuevo álbum, Juliana huye de la languidez algo cansisna de Peace and love (2010) para acercarse algo más a la soberbia altivez de discos más juveniles. Cualquiera de los temas antes citados podría ilustrárnoslo.
El único pero que le pondríamos al disco es su producción un tanto descuidada (hay un tema en el que se oye los ladridos de su perro de fondo, a ver si averiguais cuál), aunque éso, en estos tiempos, más que un defecto, podría pasar por ser una virtud. Por lo demás, disco absolutamente de madurez, Juliana canta como nunca, su forma de interpretar su música sigue siendo tan sencilla como su punto de vista sobre el Pop: compromiso tan sólo consigo misma y con los que la rodean.

Juliana Hatfield – There´s always another girl (2011)

“For Juliana Hatfield fans, the release of There’s Always Another Girl should feel like an accomplishment. The songwriter’s been in a near-daily conversation with them about the album’s recording process through her PledgeMusic website and raised money by selling unique items and experiences on the site. Things fans could “pledge” for through the site ranged from a personal Skype session with the singer to the downright-weird “certified” lock of hair. These die-hards got the VIP treatment right up until the album’s completion, hearing There’s Always Another Girl a month early, and now Hatfield will see what the rest of the world thinks of it this week.
With these pledges funding a lot of the project (Hatfield’s PledgeMusic site says 489 percent of her fundraising goal was met), Hatfield created an album that was truly hers, and there’s a lot of good (and bad) that is tied to that. Not surprisingly for Hatfield fans, the album leans heavily on guitar-based songs that include razor-thin guitar tones and acoustic-led tracks. The singer’s pristine voice shines through on the album’s best track, the quirky, bopping “Sex and Drugs,” which doesn’t quite turn out to be the party its title promises. Instead, the song slams the “sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll” culture and its effect on women in both its lyrics and an anti-guitar solo that puts buzzes and whirrs in the place of full-note string bends.
But There’s Always Another Girl abstains from the rock and roll spirit in another way that isn’t as beneficial to the music—the album’s rubbing alcohol-sterile production. Tracks like “Candy Wrappers” and “Taxicab” are perfect in all the wrong ways. With its corny synth parts and a straightforward rhythm, “Candy Wrappers” sounds like a Pinkerton-era Weezer track without all the charm—the dirtied-up downstroked guitars and fuzzy, almost-clipping drums. And whether Hatfield likes it or not, she has a piercing clarity to her voice that makes her harmonies either angelically smooth or too much to handle all at once.
But beyond these issues, there’s a songwriter who has been honing her craft over several decades. “Don’t Wanna Dance”’s wiry guitar intro is interrupted by Hatfield’s dog’s incredible timing (think “Been Caught Stealing” by Jane’s Addiction) before launching into a relaxed, timeless rock groove. “Batteries” builds and builds before introducing a heavily modulated synth that sounds like it was built to induce paranoia. It’s moments like these that show Hatfield’s ability to take advantage of her own intentional, focused ideas and meld them with spontaneous moments of creative opportunity. There’s Always Another Girl isn’t perfect, but it is an awfully focused effort coming from an artist that is doing it for the right reasons” (pastemagazine.com)

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