On this list of my favorite albums of 2008, there is one person above all the others that I want to sit down and have a conversation with over a bottle of wine. Juliana Hatfield is that person. I can still remember opening up a box of new release LP's at the record store I worked in 1989 in Minneapolis. It was a band I had never heard of called the Blake Babies. The painting on the cover caught my eye for the album called Earwig. I put it on the turntable, as they say, the rest is history. Juliana could sing the phone book and I would be entranced.
How To Walk Away is her 10th album and I feel one of her best. She has a bunch of people guesting on the album. Matthew Caws of Nada Surf, Richard Butler of the Psychedelic Furs, Jody Porter of Fountain Of Wayne, Tracy Bonham and the album was produced by Andy Chase from Ivy. Juliana has talked about how she has still yet to write her masterpiece. This album is the step in that direction. My opinion the best thing she has done.
One of my favorite tracks on the album, "My Baby" is so catching, I tend to find myself humming the line "oh, my baby doesn't love me anymore." I will have to say the one track that makes the album for me though, might also be the one track that sums up Juliana the most. "Such A Beautiful Girl."
"She's such a beautiful girl,
But she lives in an ugly world.
They want to knock that smile off her face,
So she shuts her door and she writes and dreams."
But she lives in an ugly world.
They want to knock that smile off her face,
So she shuts her door and she writes and dreams."
I haven't seen her perform in about 10 years. I can't wait to cross paths with her in 2009. I give you my 22nd favorite album of 2008, Juliana Hatfield How To Walk Away. She is also a published author too! Grab the book.
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