I Own That CD! - The Juliana Hatfield Three

From the ashes of the Blake Babies, lead singer and bass player, Juliana Hatfield released a fantastic debut solo album in 1992 (Hey Babe). The following year, missing the camaraderie of a band, Hatfield recruited Todd Philips and Dean Fisher to form The Juliana Hatfield Three. Together they released Become What You Are. It’s fantastic and it’s 2023’s first feature on I Own That CD!

The title was inspired by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, whom Hatfield admired and the songs are decidedly focused more on universal topics rather than personal ones. Aided by super producer Scott Litt (R.E.M., The Replacements), the sound and songs found a harder edge to a bunch of three-minute pop songs.

Kicking off with “Supermodel”, Hatfield had written a fantastic song about sexism in the world and takes resentful aim at those who are marketed for their beauty. She was grappling with her own self-being and how she was portraying herself to the public. "I felt that a lot of female singers were maybe demeaning themselves by exploiting their sexuality on stage in their music videos and I was uncomfortable with that," she told an interviewer back in 1993.

“My Sister”, the debut single, came about due to Hatfield’s fixation on existential longing. "I feel like something's missing," she said. "I almost feel like I have a twin who died at birth but no one ever told me that the twin existed. And with this song, I was trying to explore the idea of a sister who I never had." Fun fact: the song has no chorus and references two bands that Hatfield saw in the early 1980s: Violent Femmes and Del Fuegos.

“This Is The Sound” is my favorite track on the release. It’s as catchy a track that she’s ever written and recorded. “Spin the Bottle” (heard in the movie “Reality Bites”) is a catchy, honest, and incisive portrait of adolescence.

You can still hear the beautiful melodies behind the heavier sounds, especially on tracks like “For The Birds” and “Little Pieces”.

The closer, “I Got No Idols” is fantastic - a barely, two-minute track that touches on how she wants to stand on her own and in bigger terms (in my mind) are rock stars our idols?

Revisiting this release after a number of years reminds me how powerful Hatfield was back in the 1990s. She wrote strong songs that left you tapping your toes but thinking long after the song. Hatfield’s career continues into 2023 (now on tour with friend Evan Dando/Lemonheads) and I hope she continues to put out fantastic music. Become What You Are was and is fantastic and if you’d like, you can borrow my copy.