Spin The Bottle

Juliana Hatfield Three: “Spin The Bottle” (Warner)

Only Juliana Hatfield could get away with such a dated concept as ‘spin the bottle’ for a song title. She manages to do this by her familiar technique of undercutting her themes of schoolgirl innocence and naiveté with the most incongruous of blunt admissions and obviously knowing humour. Like Morrissey, she also has the ability to create such wonderfully loaded throwaway lines as “Five minutes in the closet with you.” A change of style is imminent if JHT are to outstay pop’s execution orders and songs like ‘My Darling’ indicate Juliana Hatfield has it in her to subvert everyone’s expectations.