Some Girls

Some Girls
Crushing Love
(Koch)
After Juliana Hatfield released the grimy, purposefully uncatchy Made in China last year, Crushing Love, the second effort from her indie-pop trio Some Girls, feels like a fall breeze in muggy August. She’s still dating drug addicts—guess what the gorgeous, atmospheric ballad “He’s On Drugs Again” is about?—and taking no shit, slapping guys who pour beer on her boobs at a lame party (“Social Control”). But she does it with such rhythm! Such jauntiness! Such harmonies! This isn’t solely The Juliana Hatfield Show, though it’s being marketed as such. One of the record’s strongest tracks, the driving, banjo-tinged “On My Own Again” was written and is sung by guitarist Heidi Gluck, with the dopest beat this side of “Gold Lion,” courtesy of Hatfield’s Blake Babies mate Freda Love, who provides an upbeat counterpart to Hatfield’s downer attitude. Crushing Love reveals something new and exciting with each listen, including na-na-na singalongs, the harmonica stomp of “Stars in My Dreams” and cranky songs like the obligatory Hatfield industry rant (“Rock or Pop”) and the ironically titled “Hooray for LA,” in which Boston native Hatfield bitches, “They got sunshine in my eyes/every fucking day.” A trio of top-notch musicians with nothing to prove, Some Girls has delivered a record free of pretension and full of awesome.
—Tara Thorne

This article appears in Dec 6-12, 2007.