Juliana Hatfield: Made In China : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Remember when girls with guitars seemed poised to overthrow the male rock hegemony? Juliana Hatfield does. This former Blake Babies leader and bassist on the Lemonheads' It's a Shame About Ray was widely considered one of the women most likely to achieve Nineties alt-rock stardom. But this New England-based songwriter's sales failed to match her media profile, and she has since been alternating between abrasive and reflective discs. Full of trashy guitars and pitch-wavering vocal takes, the first release on her own label thrashes about as if it's still 1992. After the promising but frustratingly brief Neil Young-ish "New Waif" and the Sonic Youth-esque "What Do I Care," Made in China soon disintegrates into demo-quality slackness. Hatfield sounds like she's happy to be out of the spotlight, but she needs to try harder than this.