Become What You Are

Juliana Hatfield Three: Juliana Hatfield (vocals, electric & acoustic guitars); Dean Fisher (electric bass); Todd Philips (drums).
Additional personnel: Peter Holsapple (keyboards); Denny Fongheiser (percussion).
Recorded at Hollywood Sound, Hollywood, California.
Walking along the seismic fault line dividing girl group innnocence from adolescent ambivalence, and pop craftsmanship from alternative/indie toughmindedness, the Juliana Hatfield Three frames the guitarist's songs in an edgy, hard-rock armor. The tone of BECOME WHAT YOU ARE is lyrical yet lethal, and the tuneful, hook-laden roar Hatfield elicits from her rhythm guitar riffs often belies the defiantly confessional tone of her songs, as if she were the offbeat spiritual spawn of Leslie Gore and Keith Richards.
It's easy to imagine legions of young ladies (and men) wandering the malls of America, for whom BECOME WHAT YOU ARE is already a defining freedom cry. On "Dame With A Rod" Hatfield imagines herself turning the table on a rapist and answering him with real violence, as her guitar churns away menacingly. But on the opening "Supermodel" Hatfield seems to both reject and embrace many of the defining images of femininism and sisterhood. While recoiling from the idea of being "the highest paid piece of ass," without a real sense of identity or self-esteem, Hatfield intones, almost as an afterthought, "I wish she'd trade places with me."
But then the characters in Juliana Hatfield's songs want it both ways. The older sister character in "My Sister" is such a bitch, but she's also a role model who introduced her to her first alternative show ("before they had a record out/before they went gold"). She fantasizes about teenage sensuality over a flirtatious 5/4 vamp on "Spin The Bottle," but on "I Got No Idols" she counsels a friend to love her "but just don't touch, I don't like to be touched," then adds by way of camouflage "I'm a liar, that's the truth, go home and think it through." Still, peeking out from her hiding place, behind that kittenish voice and those catchy guitar vamps, Hatfield's BECOME WHAT YOU ARE marks the arrival of a substantial pop tunesmith and hard-rocking teen icon.