Juliana Hatfield's solo career has pretty much followed the same course as Tanya Donelly's (with and beyond Belly). Both were touted as the next big thing at the height of the alt-rock revolution of the early '90s, and as the genre fell from favor in the latter half of the '90s, so did both Hatfield, and Donelly. Both struggled with their respective labels and after wiggling out from under their contracts, took the indie road. Neither found the mainstream following that they once enjoyed, but somehow you get the feeling that that's the way each would prefer

As for Juliana it took her a bit longer to find her footing as an indie cult artist, but as the new millennium began, she released the gorgeously modest Beautiful Creature, which I consider to be her best record (although Become What You Are) is a close second. Creature was full of comfortable, melodic gems that, though perhaps a little light on it's feet and not lyrically daring, found it's was onto my best-of list in 2000. I still keep it in the car, because it's just one of those discs that keeps the whole family from complaining.

After a stint with the female alt-rock supergroup Some Girls, she has at last returned with In Exile Deo, which some critics seem to think is a significant return to form, but to my ears is certainly not up to par with her better records and considering the wait, without question a disappointment. Though her lyrics here are smarter and pack a wry, knowing sense of irony, (she looks at dysfunction as it applies to relationships and drugs) missing is her usually reliable knack for wringing a nice hooky melody out of a chorus.

Strangely all of the elements that made Beautiful Creature such an understated winner are in place, her slightly husky "fragile as parchment" voice is just as appealing as ever, the perfectly spare instrumentation? The overall sound is pretty much the same, though there are a few more harder-edged tunes, the only thing that I was unable to detect, spin after spin, are the hooks and pop smarts that have always laced her songs and made me such a fan.

Fans of her earlier work with the Blake Babies and her first solo effort Hey Babe, will probably be pleased to hear her return to this harder edged approach, but on balance the record is still far more mellow than rocking, and regardless whether the song is a ballad or a blaster I am still at a loss to name one stand-out track on the record. There's not one song on it that you could pull your buddy aside and say "check out this tune" where as Beautiful Creature had a handful of songs that were that impressive. Take it from a Hardcore Hatfield fan - this is far from the real McCoy, but I still love her and I'm glad she's returned form exile.