Search - Juliana Hatfield :: Spin the Bottle / My Darling / Nirvana / Ruthless

Essential b-sides.

Michael Stack | North Chelmsford, MA USA | 08/02/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Fair warning-- there are two "Spin the Bottle" singles that were released in the US-- both are listed on Amazon, and my reviews for both will reflect what release they should be. The first single was released in March of 1994, was the third single from "Become What You Are" and was released on Atlantic. The second single was from the soundtrack to "Reality Bites" and was released in late 1994 on RCA.



Given what's above, this release should be the first "Spin the Bottle" single, with three b-sides-- "My Darling", "Nirvana (Live from Triple J's)" and "Ruthless", previously released as the b-side to "My Sister" but not available on any album.



Now about the actual material-- "Spin the Bottle" is pretty well known, a great, goofy song that was written pretty much because the entire "Become What You Are" album was in 4 and Hatfield wanted a song in a different time signature to shake things up. It became one of her biggest hits.



The b-sides on this are a pretty mixed bag. "My Darling" is fantastic, vocal and acoustic guitar only, it would eventually get a full arrangement on Hatfield's next album, which I think really got in the way of the song. The live take of "Nirvana" is vastly superior to the studio version, filled with an energy it lacked on the studio recording. But "Ruthless" is one of those question marks-- its kind of a dull song with a ludicrous lyric, and Hatfield or the label saw fit not only to release this as a b-side once but twice.



But overall, two superb b-sides make this single well worth acquiring. For that matter, the previous single from "Become What You Are", "For the Birds" is also worth picking up."