Juliana Hatfield
“Mouthful of Blood”
Blood
It’s seems amazing, but Juliana Hatfield is still one of the top song writers in the business, and she doesn’t seem to have aged a bit. Her name song, “Mouthful of Blood”, has that same bounce to it, even while here lyrics have grown deeper and darker. It’s been a long, strange trip. According to her bio:
The new record is about as dark as the title suggests, unsparing in both its psychological explorations and its societal indictments. Hatfield tackles both the personal and the political with plenty of grit, punk energy, and torrential distortion, but packages it with a certain playfulness. The songs are as catchy as they are abrasive, with their volatile contents held together judiciously by musical elements that strike a fine balance. Hatfield sang and played guitars, keyboards, and drums on the album, and it’s fitting, considering such immersion, that her lyrics seem to hold nothing back.
That playfulness matched with the darkness has always been one of the delightful natures of Hatfield’s recordings that set her apart from the other artists. It is rare that such danceable music is partnered with such dark lyrics. No matter what, I find myself dancing around to Hatfield’s songs. Read the lyrics to “Mouthful of Blood”:
If I say what I want to say
It might just get me killed
There’s no freedom of expression
And I don’t think I will
Let you in
All might love us[Chorus]
I bite my tongue
My mouth’s full of blood
I bite my tongue
My mouth’s full of blood
[Verse 2]
Pressure from every site
General consensus
They decide who’s crucified
For having wrong opinions
Hold on to what you’ve got
And smile for every camera
[Chorus]
I bite my tongue
My mouth’s full of blood
I bite my tongue
My mouth’s full of blood