The music is the same, but the context is so much different. Juliana Hatfield’s still-girlish voice has deepened with age, and gone is the whimsy of “Spin the Bottle.” It has been replaced by something more raw and confessional, and ultimately that much sadder. If you listen closely to Hatfield’s new album, buried in that chipper jangle pop, you can hear the time.
In the minds of her fans, perhaps, Hatfield’s only struggles over the past 15 years have been the adolescent foibles and satiric disasters in her lyrics. But in the last few months, Hatfield has revealed herself with the overwhelmingly personal How to Walk Away, an album marked by heartbreak and unrequited hopes, and When I Grow Up, an autobiography detailing her struggles with anorexia and depression. Continue reading