Feel It

As a rule, solo careers come after membership in a group — not before. But Juliana Hatfield, Some Girls' lead singer, had long since established herself as a solo artist when she formed this female alternative pop/rock trio with bassist Heidi Gluck and former Blake Babies drummer Freda Love in the early 2000s. Feel It, which was the direct result of a Blake Babies reunion tour, boasts two-thirds of the Blake Babies — Hatfield and Love — and not surprisingly, Hatfield's stamp is all over this album. The Bostonian sings lead on all of the tracks, and she wrote or co-wrote most of the material. Technically, Hatfield was never a great singer; her thin, waifish vocals certainly aren't without their limitations. But her singing still has a girlish charm, and this CD's best tracks (which include "The Prettiest Girl" and "On My Back") demonstrate that a vocalist needn't have a fantastic range in order to get her points across. (Madonna's limited vocal range certainly hasn't prevented her from providing meaningful dance-pop). So in the final analysis, Hatfield's limitations as a vocalist aren't Feel It's main issue — the disc's main issue is the quality of the material. And that material, although decent more often than not, falls short of exceptional. Feel It is a generally pleasant effort, but it isn't in a class with either Hatfield's best solo output or the Blake Babies' most memorable jangle pop. Nonetheless, some longtime Hatfield followers will be delighted to hear her reunited with Love, and Hatfield's more devoted fans will argue that her participation alone makes Feel It worth the price of admission. So even though Feel It is unlikely to go down in history as a five-star masterpiece, there will still be an audience for this noteworthy, if slightly uneven, outing.