The parental advisory sticker on the front cover of Some Girls’ second album is an immediate indication that the Juliana Hatfield on these songs is not the same singer as the cutesy waif who fronted alt-pop band the Blake Babies nearly two decades ago. This Hatfield has since remade herself as a rocker, one with a propensity for brawny guitars and casual profanity.
She hasn’t lost her knack for writing catchy hooks, though the ones on Crushing Love are too often accompanied by lyrics that feel hasty and underdeveloped. Hatfield, bassist Heidi Gluck and drummer Freda Love wrote and recorded these fourteen new tunes in a hurry, and have talked about how liberating it was not to have time to fuss over the songs much. But a little more fuss wouldn’t have hurt.
There are some turbulent themes as the Girls pose questions about life and love, but sometimes they’re only skimming the surface. The songs are best when the musicians try new things: The somber piano figure that opens “He’s On Drugs Again”, or the acerbic lyrics debating stylistic differences on “Rock Or Pop?” over blasts of electronic noise.