Resolutions: Tamara

Juliana Hatfield: Tamara

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There's lots of quotes about tomorrow, most of which are about change, about how tomorrow will be better than today. There's no time like the breaking of a new year to really feel like tomorrow has arrived.

In this early Juliana Hatfield b-side, from her "Forever Baby" single/EP, she has almost created tomorrow as a person, an entity. In that way, she names the song "Tamara", a play on the word "tomorrow". The song is about plans for betterment in general. In the song, she has big plans to make herself better tomorrow than she is today, but by the end of the song she's already started to give up hope that tomorrow/Tamara can ever really change anything and is destined to always be the same.

Blank and Blues: You Blues

Juliana Hatfield: You Blues

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When thinking of this theme, the answer of what to post was staring me in the face, quite literally. The above poster, for the album this song is featured on, hangs on the wall a few feet away.

Juliana has a tendency towards melancholic lyrics as it is, so having a song about being down isn't really new for her, but this song gives it a more general feeling.

The Bountiful Feast: Boiled Potato

Blake Babies: Boiled Potato

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The Blake Babies were college music darlings in the early 90s. Their jangly rock style paired with the the girly and sweet vocals of Juliana Hatfield made them stand out from the grunge scene. As many will know, Juliana Hatfield went solo after a few albums with the Blake Babies and became another college music darling in her own right over the years.

This song is sung like a love song to a potato. If you replace all mentions of potato with a name it becomes a lot less odd, so it does seem like it could most certainly be a love song had they not chosen to use the words "boiled potato" instead of someone's name. But the content goes much deeper than that. Though the song is cute and jangly, you get this whole new view of it when you hear a re-worked version of it off a b-side single from Juliana's first solo record a few years later. The song, then called "Feed Me", shares the same tune and many of the same lyrics, except now instead of "boiled potato" she simply says "oh baby", and it's much more sad, and it is quite clearly about dealing with an eating disorder. I find it hard to ever hear "Boiled Potato" the same way after hearing "Feed Me".

Juliana herself has dealt with an eating disorder off and on for most of her adult life, and just recently finally went to a rehab program to try to get better. You can read about her experience on her blog where she talks about her song "Universal Heartbeat". And I have uploaded "Feed Me" here as well.

Juliana Hatfield: Feed Me

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Adjective Noun: Dumb Fun

Juliana Hatfield: Dumb Fun

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Hatfield's heavy indierock at its best: a proto-hipster anti-commericalist anthem turned out in low-tuned electric fuzz and feedback. This roller coaster of a song, and the amazingly potent scream that is 1995 release Only Everything, totally got me through young adulthood -- the song, and the memory of meeting Juliana Hatfield and Evan Dando wandering the halls of that same school afterhours one day near the end of my senior year, just me and these new grunge gods hanging in the hallway. They thought I was a teacher, maybe. Now I am.

Also incredible, and thematically relevant: the languid, muffled cry of rage that is Dying Proof, off the same album.

Fifty States: Massachusetts

Juliana Hatfield Three: Feeling Massachusetts

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Back in 1993 Juliana Hatfield and Tanya Donnelly (un)intentionally released albums at the same time. While Tanya stuck to more obscure themes, Juliana decided to wear it on her sleeve. Despite that I have had some monumental moments in Plymouth Rock state (first kiss, free beer via truck wreck, swimming in March) there is no denying that the place is dismal (snowing in May, cold, St. Pauli girl beer of choice circa '89). Hatfield relished in her misery which she descriptively documents in this song. Feeling bad? Blame the locale. In retrospect "Supermodel" exemplifies denial, "Spin the Bottle" channels into that virginity myth she tried to float, and "My Sister" a jealousy that only a sibling could understand. However, this subtle "knife in the back" to her adopted state (she's from Maine (now there is a state steeped in misery)) tells you a lot about Hatfield in the early 90s-- a pretty chick, a mean streak, and an extreme desire to treat you like shit. She could be dumped into the best situation possible (person, place, and time) and she would find a way to wreck it. Essentially feeling Massachusetts is just a way to describe who she was at the time and pining a geographical location to clue everyone in on the misery. The genius in this song though is that she disguises it in some wistful vocals and a very catchy pop song. She likely had all those great moments (and more) that I had, but instead of remembering the good -- she makes the Massachusetts "state of mind" very bad.