Review Summary: Kathleen Hannah's wild experiments
I think the time has come to take a break from my reviewing series and talk about an album that you’d probably never expect me to talk about. I’ve been reading Kathleen Hannah’s autobiography recently, so I’d like to review her strange solo album, simply known as Julie Ruin. It was an album I had heard of, I had listened to a few songs from it, but I had not been lucky enough to listen to it until now.
Kathleen Hannah is better known as the frontwoman of Bikini Kill and Le Tigre, and the creator of the riot grrl movement (90s feminist punk). After Bikini Kill broke up, and she grew somewhat disillusioned with the scene (more on that later), she wrote and recorded a solo album, only equipped with her voice and a sample machine. So Julie Ruin has no genre, it can go from a wild rock riff to a sort of electro sound and even some vague reggae undertones. As for the lyrics, it keeps the feminist themes of Kathleen’s previous works, but with a more bitter outlook. For example, on the first song, “Radical or Pro Parental”, she’s not screaming for a revolution girl style now, but talking about her conflict with other riot grrls who didn’t find her radical enough and would “smash my face into the car hood and after all it was my fault”.
Despite its bitterness, the song has a really catchy riff. “A Place Called Won’t Be There” has a similar topic, with a more aggressive but infectious riff and distorted vocals. In the context of the album, those songs are not about leaving feminism but about making it less restrictive. For example, she sings about taking pride in being feminine but strong, in the catchy and fun dance rock track “V.G.I”. In the more ballad-y “Apt #5”, she sings about leaving an abusive relationship, and triumphantly replies to her abuser “I don’t give a *** what you think anymore!”. But in the most impressive, angriest and most direct song, “I Wanna Know What Love Is”, she raps, sort of, about her rage at all the violence women have to deal with, and promises to fight back. Even the simple beat that keeps repeating has a sad but defiant tone. Her voice sounds very different from everything I’ve heard from her: she’s not screaming, or singing in a deliberately annoying high-pitched voice, just speak-singing in a much clearer and serious tone, but full of contained fury.
That song is the farthest from her punk rock days, the last thing you’d have expected from Kathleen Hannah in the 90s, but it’s one of my favorite on the album. This is a great example of how if you try to experiment with different sounds, don’t try to meet people’s expectations about what your music should be, but still put your personal touch into it, you can still make great songs. That’s also true when she tries to make a chilled-out reggae song like “My Morning is Summer”, or a sort of tropical-sounding love song like “Stay Monkey”. But she still has some punk-ish rage to satisfy her old times fans, like on the crazy fast and angry “Aerobicide” which she ends by yelling “Hot summer in hell!”. “On Language” is a little too similar to other songs with a fast riff and distorted vocals, but it has a really cool riff. “Crochet” has some her funniest lyrics, about how people who annoy her make her want to take up crochet. “The Punk Singer” has a great punk rock riff. It’s about her desire to change the world with her music, and you believe she can still do it.
In many ways, Kathleen Hannah has changed the world. She was there at the beginning of the 90s rock scene, and opened a lot of doors for women in punk rock. I find the riot grrl movement as a whole fascinating, and I think its most interesting performer, the one that deserves the most to be remembered, is definitely its original creator. It begins with Bikin Kill’s coolest song, “Rebel Girl”, and then, you want to listen to all the music Kathleen Hannah’s ever made. If I had to review only one of her projects, I’d review this one, because it includes some of her best songs, and it functions as a great middle ground between Bikini Kill’s punk and Le Tigre’s electro, but its unique style is just, well, so Kathleen Hannah. Sure, this improbable mix of punk, dance, rap and reggae, her proudly feminist lyrics, and her loud, weird girlish voice aren’t for everyone. But it’s your chance to listen to something totally unique, unpolished and genuine, a great insight into the mind of an artist who can really be considered exceptional.
