Grade: A-
It’s really no secret punk rock is the sweet serenade of revolution. Its blaring instrumentations, screeching vocals, challenging lyrics and unapologetic antics makes it a rallying battle cry demanding change and liberation.
No one understands this better than Kathleen Hanna, who played a significant role in the launch of third wave feminism in the late 1980s with the advent of Washington punk band Bikini Kill, one of the most original and masterful groups of the 1990s.
Not much longer, Hanna got the feminine rebellion she demanded in her songs, and in the frontlines was the "riot grrrl" punk movement of the early-to-mid 1990s.
Along with Bikini Kill, bands like Sleater-Kinney, Huggy Bear and Bratmobile carried the torch lit by groups like the Runaways and Sonic Youth.
Lyrics in the songs of the bands apart of this movement discussed rape, domestic abuse, homophobia, racism and, above all, patriarchy. No longer was feminism merely about rich white women. Queer women, trans women and women of color were finally added to the equation.
But of course, like all music movements, it eventually had to die. Ever since Bikini Kill broke up in 1997, Hanna has had a solo career and two bands, Le Tigre and, more recent, the Julie Ruin. Though all of them stuck to their punk-feminism roots, they also incorporated some techno.
In its latest album “Hit Reset,” the Julie Ruin seem to bring forth a dark, yet very tongue-in-cheek, return to Hanna’s Bikini Kill roots. Hanna also chose to wear her heart on her sleeve while she sings about a disturbing past with her abusive alcoholic father.
The opening lyrics of this album from the titular song are some of the most off-putting I've heard in a while. Hanna explains the contents of her childhood home - deer hooves hanging on the wall, shotgun shells casings scattered about the hallway and even her father’s drinking mug, shaped like a woman’s breast.
That’s a broken home if there ever was one.
Unfortunately, this is the darkest the album gets, and it’s at the very beginning. I was hoping there would be more immersive and artistic tracks like this scattered throughout the LP.
Regardless, this sophomore record easily surpasses the Julie Ruin’s debut “Run Fast,” even in all its greatness. Why? Because it’s more evident on this record than anything Hanna has released since her "riot grrrl" days that this came straight from the soul.
Tracks like “I Decide,” “Planet You” and “Hello Trust No One” prove you can blend punk music with something new and beautiful if done right. At the same time, there are also chaotic classic punk songs like “Be Nice” and “Let Me Go.”
By far the best track on the album is “Mr. So and So,” a hysterical roast toward male pseudo-feminists whose primary interest is getting closer to women for sexual gratification.
It would be a crime also not to mention the superb guitar work, heavy bass and totally original synthesizer ostinatos present within this song. It reminds us all that punk isn’t about love or heartbreak or whatever the hell pop punk is trying to endorse – it’s about anarchy on the norm.
Hanna achieves to bring forth all of this with the Julie Ruin. Cherie Currie might be our “wild girl,” but Hanna is forever our “rebel girl.”
To quote her, “You are the queen of my world.”
afaulds@indiana.edu | @a_faulds9615
