'I wasn't planning on making a record,' says Juliana Hatfield, of her new Pussycat album. In fact, she thought her songwriting career was on hiatus, and that she had nothing left to say in song form; that she had finally said it all after two decades as a recording artist. But then the presidential election happened. 'All of these songs just started pouring out of me. And I felt an urgency to record them, to get them down, and get them out there.' She booked some time at Q Division studios in Somerville, Massachusetts near her home in Cambridge and went in with a drummer (Pete Caldes), an engineer (Pat DiCenso) and fourteen brand-new songs. Hatfield produced and played every instrument other than drums bass, keyboards, guitars, vocals.
From start to finish recording through mixing the whole thing took a total of just twelve and a half days to complete. 'It was a blur. It was cathartic,' says Hatfield. 'I almost don't even understand what happened in there, or how it came together so smoothly, so quickly. I was there, directing it all, managing it, getting it all done, but I was being swept along by some force that was driving me.
Only Everything by HATFIELD, JULIANA. The queen of Boston alt rock drop-kicks the 'cute' out of her image with a hard-edged production that adds polish and bottom-end weight to a sound that has always been in danger of drowning in its own quirkiness.
The songs had a will, they forced themselves on me, or out of me, and I did what they told me to do. Even my hands it felt like they were not my hands. I played bass differently- looser, more confident, better.' Pussycat comes on the heels of last year's Hatfield collaboration with Paul Westerberg, the I Don't Cares' Wild Stab album, and before that, 2015's Juliana Hatfield Three ( My Sister, Spin The Bottle ) reunion/reformation album, Whatever, My Love. 'I've always been prolific and productive and I have a good solid work ethic but this one happened so fast, I didn't have time to think or plan,' says Hatfield. 'I just went with it, rode the wave. And now it is out of my hands.
![Hatfield Hatfield](/uploads/1/2/5/4/125499953/798706762.jpg)
It feels a little scary.' Pussycat is being released into a very tense, divided and inflamed America. The songs are reflective of that atmosphere angry ( When You're A Star ), defiant ( Touch You Again ), disgusted ( Rhinoceros ), but also funny ( Short-Fingered Man ), reflective ( Wonder Why ), righteous ( Heartless ) and even hopeful ( Impossible Song, with its chorus of 'What if we tried to get along/and sing an impossible song').
The Juliana Hatfield Three folded soon after the supporting tour for Become What You Are, yet Hatfield hasn't abandoned the basic approach of the band - she still rocks out, supporting her singsong melodies with massive, grungy guitars. If anything, her new backing band rocks harder than the Hatfield Three, with a better, looser sense of rhythm as well. Even with the improved musicianship, Hatfield isn't able to deliver consistently impressive songs, occasionally relying on her cuteness to cover underdeveloped lyrics and pedestrian melodies.
![Everything Everything](https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54a2ac98e4b00eab7b39c332/54ad5735e4b00d49fac51718/54ad5736e4b00d49fac5171b/1420646204379/because+we+love+you+back.jpg)
Most of the record doesn't drag, however - it's a fun, engaging pop album, yet its best moments follow the strengths of her earlier songs, without doing much to expand her formula. Stephen Thomas Erlewine.