Posts in review
Get There Reviews
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Some links for reviews of the Minor Alps album:

However, despite this largely being an album about isolation and the internal struggles that come with it, Hatfield and Caws sing nearly every line on Get There together, as in simultaneously. Naturally, I expected the two to trade off lead vocal duties on the album, but instead they share almost every lyric, never fighting for the spotlight and often using this dynamic to create really beautiful, moving harmonies, such as at the end of “Buried Plans.” 8.8/10

Michael Garrity, Paste

This combo creates a very intimate and satisfying listen as you might already guess. Caws typical hush vocal delivery shines in this setting and when Hatfield chimes in on a harmony, it is the perfect complement. 3.5/5

The Fire Note

Rather than simply trading lead vocal duties, they take the effortless harmonies route instead, making it hard to discern where one voice ends and the other begins. While the acoustic songs are satisfyingly pretty, particularly "Maxon," it's when they make the switch to electric that it comes alive. 7/10

Michael Edwards, exclaim.ca

The duo co-write, sing and play nearly every instrument on a predominantly lush, lovely rendered debut that is never less than pleasant. Unfortunately, it’s seldom more than that either as these amiable tunes drift on a dreamy haze that threatens to slide into a memorable chorus or melody, but seldom does. 2.5/5

Hal Horowitz, American Songwriter

Wild Animals - Reviews
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As was the case with last year's covers album it doesn't appear that Juliana has sent any review copies out or employed any kind of publicist for 'Wild Animals'.

Reviews are therefore in short supply.

Snob's Music gave a 7/10 score in a write up posted within days of the Pledge release in August.

Other than a few comments there hasn't been much else.

Today Andrew Griffin has posted a 4/5 rated review at Red Dirt Report. Thanks to Andrew for sharing the link.

Become What You Are - 20th Anniversary Article

a great piece on Become What You Are: http://t.co/vg23YDEwuw ("defying any pop expectations of a winning narrative")

— Juliana Hatfield (@julianahatfield) August 21, 2013


Elizabeth Barker:

There wasn’t much opportunity for daydream or the invention of more extraordinary selves in Become What You Are. Instead Juliana showed you her reality and all the ways it let her down. Some of her angst was existential, like on “For The Birds” (the dead-bird one, the one where she finds a dying bird in the first chorus, and in the second chorus argues that “Humans only wreck the world/They’d kill your whole family for a string of pearls”). A few of the songs were painfully personal: “Addicted” was at least partly about her anorexia (“The skeleton trees remind me of me/They got no leaves/To make the air we breathe”), while “Little Pieces” was a breakup anthem stripped of any cheery delusions of romantic grandeur (“Feels like a heartbreak/But it’s nothing near that great”). And several tracks served as social commentary, taking on everything from rape (“A Dame with a Rod”) to the false promise of rock-star worship (“I Got No Idols”) to the emptiness of the fashion industry (the album-opening “Supermodel,” on which she warns that “Those magazines end up in the trash,” stretching out the lyric’s last syllable for eight weird and gorgeous seconds).

Read the whole article at Popdose.

Q Division Show June 27, 2012 - Live Photos, Review - Stereogum

Andrew Youssef:

Her shimmering, early acoustic set featured a gorgeous cover of “Fruit Fly” from Nada Surf, a crystalline take on Foo Fighters’ “Learn To Fly,” as well as the some classics from her catalog like “My Sister,” “Nirvana,” and new songs like “Candy Wrappers.”

There's more on the Q Division studio shows last night, together with a gallery of 25 photos at Stereogum.

There's Always Another Review (5)
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Three more:

Adrienne Urbanski, Short and Sweet NYC:

There’s Always Another Girl doesn’t pack the same emotional punch that How to Walk Away did but it’s a gem nonetheless.

Ania Roginska, MVRemix:

I left wanting at least one crack at a track where the instrumentals were the rusted gears, pushed through by Hatfields well oiled smooth sound.

Stephen Thomas Erlewine, AllMusic:

a continuation of the excellent, mature work she’s done in the new millennium.

4/5

Become What You Are - Podcast Review

Juliana's 1993 album Become What You Are is the subject of this week's episode of Dig Me Out - a "weekly podcast dedicated to reviewing the lost and forgotten rock of the 90's".

You can listen or download at Dig Me Out or via iTunes.

The album is critiqued from the points of view of a listener revisiting after many years and of someone hearing much of it for the first time.

The first 15 minutes is little more than a Juliana biography so you can safely skip to the remaining half hour unless man reads wikipedia is your thing.

There's Always Another Review (4)

Another batch of There's Always Another Girl reviews:

First up Daniel Tebo, loving it big time at PopMatters:

While her fellow graduates from the class of ’93 have been content relive past glories, Hatfield has matured into a distinguished, risk-taking songwriter who continues to surprise and occasionally confound listeners.

 

8/10

Then Jason Keller, not so much at Now Magazine:

Many of the other 13 songs on her 11th studio album (financed by pledgemusic, with a percentage going to animal shelters) show flashes of the melodic brilliance of her early 90s output, like the sweetly sung Failure, the easy groove of Thousands Of Guitars and the bluesy boogie of Don’t Wanna Dance.

 

3/5

And finally, Chris Kein, most definitely not impressed at Tiny Mix Tapes:

In a time where it is possible for acts who made their careers in that early-90s cauldron of independent creativity to reform and remake themselves, it seems a cop-out to make such a risk-free album, especially since Hatfield had full creative control.

 

2/5

thanks to liveontomorrow reader Carlos for submitting some recent links

There's Always Another Review (2)

You can read this review by Jonathan Perry at the Boston Globe.

A couple of other reviews are also online. A gushing blog review at A Momentary Lapse, With Joel:

Juliana has written a song full of truth. 'There's Always Another Girl' will leave an impression on you and you'll want to go back and re-listen to make sure you heard every word she uttered. "Don't you love it when a beautiful woman self destructs?"

And a not quite so gushing review from Austin Trunick at Consequence Of Sound:

Nothing says open mic night more than singing lyrics such as “The batteries are dead/Totally, completely dead [...] Completely fucking dead.” It’s bad enough to recall another buried mid-’90s memory: Phoebe Buffay’s agitating coffeehouse performances on Friends.

2/5

The liveontomorrow review is now imminent. That's the one you're all waiting for of course.

There's Always Another Review
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Let the reviews commence...

this album is the perfect blend of everything that Juliana already does best, while amping up the melodies, harmonies and moods to degrees that even some of her most ardent followers probably couldn’t have predicted.

Marc With A C, The Real Congregation

Having made her name producing sardonic jangle-pop tunes with sometimes uncomfortably honest lyrics, Hatfield has wisely gone back to those roots for There’s Always Another Girl. Recapturing the golden-age of ’90s female-fronted indie, the album feels startlingly retro at times.

7/10

Terry Mulcahy, wears the trousers magazine

The innocent voice may be a little raspier with age, and the heart may be a little more ragged and roughed up by experience, but the soul of Juliana Hatfield remains strong.

Snob's Music

NYC Review - Spin

"On tracks off her latest release, 2010's Peace & Love, Hatfield sang diary-entry-esque lyrics about "butterflies landing on my pillow" ('Butterflies') and "missing your dreams" ('What Is Wrong'). They were sometimes abstract, sometimes intensely confessional, as in her ode to her singing partner, 'Evan.'"

Last night's Juliana & Evan show in New York reviewed (with photos) at Spin.

NYC Reviews - Capital New York & Rock NYC

"There’s a timelessness to their deceptively simple, distractingly pretty songs about drugs and despair and dreams (as momentary relief from insomnia)."

The September 29 Juliana & Evan show reviewed at Capital New York.

"the set is a meandering, pleasant enough meander through songs nobody bought for very good reason: because they aren't very good."

This 'meandering, pleasant enough meander' of a review is at Rock NYC.

Peace and Love - Review Roundup (6)

If you thought the negative review of Peace & Love in Pitchfork was infuriating (and others did), take a deep breath before reading the PopMatters review.  

It's OK if a reviewer doesn't like the album and can offer a criticism that explains why but other than an opinion that the lyrics are weak, the gist of the review seems to complain that Juliana has the audacity to still be making music after 20 odd years.  The review has been suitably taken to task by 'stever' in the comments on the PopMatters site.

Hopefully this is not a view shared by every writer on PopMatters. Indeed, in 2008 Juliana was described there as a "talented iconic rock star" and How To Walk Away as "a brilliant new album of intensely personal songs"

Ho hum.

Peace and Love - 7digital Editor's Choice

Peace & Love is this week's Editor's Choice on the US version of the digital download site 7digital.  The title track, easily one of the standout songs on the album, is currently free.  Hopefully this will spark a few sales among the curious. A good thing, even if the Editor's blurb is a bit sloppy:

"Peace & Love is the 10th studio album by Hatfield, marking 20 years as a recording artist. The title track on this album is free this week and offers listeners a nice example of the singer/ songwriter's somber folk magnifigance (sic). She supposedly produced all the songs on this album as well as playing the instruments. Her heart seems weathered but her sound remains very young and fresh on this 12 track album."

Magnifigant! As for the self-production, there's no supposedly about it.