Pussycat
by Juliana Hatfield
Metascore
84

Universal acclaim - based on 8 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 8
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 8
  3. Negative: 0 out of 8
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  1. PopMatters
    May 18, 2017
    90
    As a collection of rock songs, it is deadly on the mark, a bulls-eye, a shot of sunshine and bourbon to your gut. It takes its place as the year’s most glowing record of despair, and joy? And as Juliana Hatfield’s best album.
  2. The Line of Best Fit
    May 1, 2017
    90
    What makes Pussycat an unqualified success is how Hatfield has constructed it with multiple dimensions and, no matter the mood or approach a given song takes, she continually scores with material among the finest of her career.
  3. The A.V. Club
    May 1, 2017
    83
    14 tight and tidy grunge-pop tunes, playing everything herself.
  5. The Wire
    Aug 9, 2017
    80
    Pussycat is as excoriating and pitiless as anything Jenny Hval has produced to date and just as unflinching in its analysis of gender politics (the Wire-ish “Sex Machine” manages to be funny, poignant and upsetting) plus Hatfield cranks out some cathartic Ragged Glory solos (which could easily go on for twice as long as they do) and proves herself a fearlessly uninhibited vocal stylist to boot. Good work. [Aug 2017, p.61]
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  6. AllMusic
    May 25, 2017
    80
    Hatfield is protesting Trump because he offends her personally, and the specificity of her outrage makes Pussycat an unusually powerful protest album.
  7. Magnet
    May 18, 2017
    80
    The toxic muse behind Pussycat's bitter melodies and crunchy guitar solos is recognizable as the man who's made so many of us feel as dejected as a woman in a Hatfield song. [No. 142, p.57]
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  8. Paste Magazine
    May 1, 2017
    72
    The immediacy of the melodies--simpler and scrappier than she’s written in years--paired with the snarl of the arrangements, gives Pussycat a rumbling, cathartic honesty ideal for the anger of our times.
  9. Pitchfork
    May 1, 2017
    68
    And yet, as loaded as the subject matter is, it does amazingly little to diminish Hatfield’s bright spirit. Even on this, her angriest record by a landslide, the singer retains the intrinsic tunefulness that’s marked every record she’s made since she was a teenager.

Awards & Rankings

57
#57 Best Album of 2017

User Reviews

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User Score
7.0

Generally favorable reviews- based on 9 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 9
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 9
  3. Negative: 2 out of 9
  1. brufrog
    Dec 16, 2017
    9
    All Juliana Hatfield's records are good to great, but she seems to have hit on a really good thing here with this Trump takedown. It isn'tAll Juliana Hatfield's records are good to great, but she seems to have hit on a really good thing here with this Trump takedown. It isn't just that the cutting lyrics are so timely; the songs and hooks are really memorable, and it is quite a singable record. It's a perfect response to that ****… Full Review »
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