Pussycat

Description

I wasnt planning on making a record, says Juliana Hatfield, of her new Pussycat album. In fact, she thought her songwriting career was on hiatus, and that she had nothing left to say in song form; that she had finally said it all after two decades as a recording artist.

But then the presidential election happened. All of these songs just started pouring out of me. And I felt an urgency to record them, to get them down, and get them out there. She booked some time at Q Division studios in Somerville, Massachusetts near her home in Cambridge and went in with a drummer (Pete Caldes), an engineer (Pat DiCenso) and fourteen brand-new songs. Hatfield produced and played every instrument other than drumsbass, keyboards, guitars, vocals. From start to finishrecording through mixingthe whole thing took a total of just twelve and a half days to was a blur. It was cathartic, says Hatfield. I almost dont even understand what happened in there, or how it came together so smoothly, so quickly. I was there, directing it all, managing it, getting it all done, but I was being swept along by some force that was driving me. The songs had a will, they forced themselves on me, or out of me, and I did what they told me to do. Even my handsit felt like they were not my hands. I played bass differently looser, more confident, better. Pussycat comes on the heels of last years Hatfield collaboration with Paul Westerberg, the I Dont Cares Wild Stab album, and before that, 2015s Juliana Hatfield Three (My Sister, Spin The Bottle) reunion/reformation album, Whatever, My Love. Ive always been prolific and productive and I have a good solid work ethic but this one happened so fast, I didnt have time to think or plan, says Hatfield. I just went with it, rode the wave. And now it is out of my hands. It feels a little scary. Pussycat is being released into a very tense, divided and inflamed America. The songs are reflective of that atmosphereangry (When Youre A Star), defiant (Touch You Again), disgusted (Rhinoceros), but also funny (Short-Fingered Man), reflective (Wonder Why), righteous (Heartless) and even hopeful (Impossible Song, with its chorus of What if we tried to get along/and sing an impossible song).