Juliana's Pony: Total System Failure

Playing under the pseudonym of Juliana's Pony, much like she did seven years earlier with The Juliana Hatfield Three, Juliana Hatfield once again demonstrates her ability to craft an album of noteworthy pop hooks. This time out, however, there's a demented underbelly to the songs, all of which employ heavily distorted fuzz guitar. The album opens very abruptly with 15 seconds of noise, followed by 12 tracks of crunching, slurring, sarcastic tunes full of tongue-in-cheek venom. Hatfield's guitar playing lies somewhere between that of electric Neil Young and Husker Du-era Bob Mould, giving it an edge only heard briefly on previous releases such as Only Everything and Bed. Weak spots do abound on such numbers as the album's title track and the sleeper "Using You." Overall though, the music and the rhythm section of Milligram drummer Zephan Courtney and former Weezer bassist Mikey Welsh make this a must have for the diehard, as well as, the casual Hatfield fan.