Laura Fisher, for The Guardian on the 25th anniversary of Hey Babe:
Hey Babe was among the most successful independent releases of the year; 25 years on, it remains a largely forgotten minor masterpiece. But the release of a newly remastered Hey Babe on the American Laundromat label this month will reintroduce listeners to a coming-of-age album for the solitary female misfit. At the time of Hey Babe’s release, the riot grrrl movement was normalising the expression of female rage, offering a crucial framework of empowerment for female listeners. But Hey Babe offers a landscape of emotion – self-disgust, second-guessing, depression, cautious optimism – that has no place in a reception model so narrowly hinged on “empowerment”.
These words are adapted from Laura's exceptional 2013 essay at The New Inquiry.