Some projects just fall into place. Some bands are greater than the sum of their parts. Some records find an impossible balance between the lessons of experience and the spontaneous taking of a chance. Some Girls are three women: Freda Love (The Blake Babies, Mysteries of Life, Lola), Heidi Gluck (the Pieces), and Juliana Hatfield (The Blake Babies and sometime solo artist). Feel It is their debut album.
Some Girls began when Freda and Juliana got together in 2000 for a reunion of The Blake Babies, the seminal Boston indie-rock band they helped form in the late 1980s. At the end of The Blake Babies' reunion tour in 2001, the two decided to continue playing together. Juliana says, "I love playing with Freda and wanted to continue working with her after The Blake Babies was pretty much played out."
So Juliana in Massachusetts and Freda in Indiana began throwing song ideas at each other through the mail. Their collaboration shifted into high gear, and soon rough, unfinished ideas were turning into a great collection of songs. Wanting to flesh out the songs, the pair made demos with the help of Freda's Indianapolis friend, the multi-talented, multi-instrumentalist Heidi Gluck. The demo sessions were a smashing success, and Heidi became a permanent member of the band, now christened “Some Girls.”
With a strong set of new songs and a power trio line-up with a signature sound and undeniable chemistry, they decided to fly into the mystery and record an album: Feel It. The record was made in Bloomington, Indiana at Echo Park Studios (Son Volt, Ben Folds, Lisa Germano) with Jake Smith (Mysteries of Life frontman) producing. Throughout the recordings, Jake's impeccable arranging talents glitter. With invisible fingerprints, he helped the Girls to give each song just what it really needed.
The recordings on Feel It are centered around the tight and soulful performances of the band: Juliana on guitar and lead vocals, Heidi on bass and backing vocals, and Freda's unmistakable drum groove. The record shows the versatility of the band: the Moe Tucker groove of the title track, the understated Talking Heads white-girl funk of "On My Back," the Stones-y stomp of "Prettiest Girl," and the exuberant "Launch Pad," where Buddy Holly meets the Vaselines. Maybe the most stunning band performance on the record though, is the remarkable re-casting of the Robert Johnson classic "Malted Milk," which, in the hands of Some Girls becomes a shimmering prayer somewhere between Galaxy 500 and Astral Weeks.
Around this solid core of rock band performances, all the Some Girls helped to add a wide range of sounds and textures: Heidi's harmonica on "Almost True," and slide guitar on tracks like "Just Like the First Time" and "Malted Milk," Juliana's additional keyboards and lead guitar work (like the solo in "You Don't Know" that jumps off the record), and Freda's percussion and lead vocal on "Launch Pad." Freda, who has spent most of her musical career as the backbone of other people's songs, really comes into her own as a songwriter on this album. Her and Juliana's "Almost True" (Juliana's contribution being only a few lyrics) is one of the album's high points: a lyric and melody that are at once deep and direct.
Juliana, already recognized as an important songwriter since The Blake Babies, pulls off what so few career musicians ever do, and continues to grow and improve. On Feel It, she offers some of her most soulful and vital songs yet. Her cutting lyrical sense is still in effect on tracks like "Robot City" and "Feel It," but there is also a new sense of fun and rhythmic urgency to "Prettiest Girl," "You Don't Know" or the super-funky "Necessito." Always an engaging and virtuosic singer, Hatfield has never sounded so confident or so casual.
So have a listen. Some Girls' Feel It was born of the spirit of musical camaraderie and pure self-expression. This project came together at the right time for the right reasons. And you can feel it.
