• Indie rock princess mellows with age.

It’s been a long time since Juliana Hatfield tore her way through angry teenage lovelorn screeds as the front woman of the Blake Babies. Since then, she has released a handful of solo albums (under various monikers), had a much-discussed personal and professional relationship with Evan Dando of the Lemonheads and, apparently, grown up. Gone are the crunchy guitars and sweet sneer that were in full effect as recently as 2005’s Made in China. Now it’s all string arrangements and piano-driven weepers. She’s still lovelorn, but the resulting material now has the wistful whimper of middle age. How this maturity is received will depend on the listener. Her fans are no doubt growing older, too, so this kick at a more commercial sound will go down smooth for some. Others, like me, living in the past, will wonder when Juliana Hatfield started sounding like Sheryl Crow.