I wasn't really a fan of Juliana Hatfield, not with the Blake Babies or solo. I'll admit, I hadn't listened to much, but what I did hear went in one ear and out the other. But then I fell in love with her tributes to Olivia Newton-John and Jeff Lynne. So, at the suggestion of a few readers who were indeed Juliana fans, I listened to a few of her records again. Nothing. In one ear and out the other.
And now there is "Bets," her new surprise record with her contractor Eric Payne. And I am in love again.
Common denominator here- Juliana didn't write the music on any of these three records I love. Maybe that makes her a fantastic interpretor.
"Best" is a quick 29 minutes and there isn't a bad second to be heard, at least not to my ears. Eric Payne wrote all the music and plays all of the instruments, while Hatfield sings and plays a few guitar parts. It's unclear from the Bandcamp page if these are her lyrics.
The songs are chunky and hook-filled. Payne's guitar playing occasionally veers into Verlaine (or Nels Cline) territory and the sound of it all simply slays me.
Unless I am really dense, none of the songs are on YouTube. So you'll have to fend for yourselves.
3 comments:
https://julianahatfieldandericpayne.bandcamp.com/album/bets
I wasn't a fan until the Newton-John covers thing either. Thanks for the heads up on the new stuff.
Her contractor? So he was adding a deck to her home and they decided to record an album? Cool!
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