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May 14, 2021 Issue #68 - Japanese Breakfast and HAIM (The Protest Issue) By Frank Valish

Juliana Hatfield’s nineteenth solo studio album, Blood, opens with spare acoustic guitar that drops out at the 11-second mark to an explosion of fuzzed out, skittering guitar and a shaking bass that sounds as if your woofers are busted. The song, “The Shame of Love,” which further shapeshifts throughout its five minutes, is a perfectly jarring start to one of Hatfield’s most experimental albums in years.

Blood is a violent, disturbed, and disturbing album, both in sonic and lyrical content. “Nightmary” is a melodic political/socio-cultural observation, augmented by flute-sounding keyboards, culminating in the repeating line, “I’m living in a nightmare and I can’t wake up.” The noisy “Had a Dream” describes various bloody murderous dream sequences, with Hatfield intoning, “It was a very American dream.” The perfectly nice New Wave-ish “Suck It Up” is broken in two by a static-like audio screed that ends the song. “Chunks” jitters its way through three minutes, and “Dead Weight” is all self-deprecation and loathing. To say nothing of the fact that the catchiest track on the album is called “Mouthful of Blood.”

Blood is a challenging album for challenging times. But its commentary, its auditory experimentation, and, despite the surrounding noise, its dedication to melody might be exactly what we need right now. It’s exciting to see an artist who, despite an estimable catalog, is continuing to make the best music of her career, year after year. (www.julianahatfield.com)

Author rating: 7/10