It was only natural that Juliana Hatfield felt a little lopsided after recording her album of subdued pop songs, Beautiful Creature.

The record didn't express the caustic side of Hatfield's personality,

which has periodically reared its head throughout her solo career. Plus, as she said, she's as big a fan of the Sex Pistols and Led Zeppelin as she is of Olivia Newton John and Wilson Phillips.

"With Beautiful Creature, I accomplished something I didn't know

I was trying to accomplish," Hatfield said recently from her Boston

home. "I just ended up making this semi-acoustic album that was pretty

mellow and expressing melancholy. I was very empowered, but at the same

time I felt I had left out a whole part of myself that I wanted to be

heard, too, which was my more cynical, humorous and kinda unforgiving

side. Also, I wanted to play more guitar solos."

The solution, the 32-year-old singer decided, was to record the

rock-steady Total System Failure, which, along with Beautiful

Creature, arrived in record stores May 16. They are her first

releases since 1998's Bed.

While the projects are easy to distinguish musically, Hatfield said it's inaccurate to assume that Creature is the more personal

reflection of the two simply because of its warm, intimate feel and

vulnerable lyrics.

In fact, she said, much of the irreverent ranting on Total System

Failure nails her emotions dead-on.

"It's actually pretty true to me," said Hatfield, who is in the midst of a U.S. tour. "It may seem like on 'Houseboy' or 'Road Wrath' that I'm mocking people's attitudes, but they're actually my attitudes. I

actually long for a houseboy, and I experience road rage really bad. I

can't handle bad drivers, and I get really pissed off at people who

can't drive. It's me, and I'm not proud of it, but it's funny."

On "Houseboy," Hatfield humorously longs for someone to cater to her

every need. "Could you go to the drug store?" she asks, her girlish

voice distorted against her guitar. "I need Advil and Robitussin and

condoms. Take out the trash, and give the dog a bath."

'Joyride Through The Badlands'

Total System Failure, which Hatfield released under the name

Juliana's Pony, examines "the gross

side of human nature and the horrible things that people do to each

other and themselves and their families," she said. "It's kind of a

celebration of disgust. My manager calls it 'a joyride through the

Badlands.' "

Songs such as "Let's Get Married," a wry ditty about a woman's mad rush

for matrimony, and "Breeders" — which features the line, "Scary

breeders, they run me out of town" — are more observational than

personal, the singer said.

Hatfield enlisted drummer Zephan

Courtney and Weezer

bassist Mikey Welsh for Total

System Failure, giving Welsh one homework assignment for the

sessions: to write some "dumb rock riffs," she said. "We just jammed it

out and recorded it," she said. "And then that night I'd go home and

write the lyrics." The trio finished the project in two weeks.

Hatfield's label, Rounder Records, is working singles from both albums

— "Somebody Is Waiting for Me" from Creature and ""My Protégée" from Failure. "It certainly presented an

opportunity and a challenge for us to market two records at the same

time, but so far we're off to a great start," said Paul Foley, general

manager at the label. "Not many artists would take the chance of putting out two records at once — Bruce

Springsteen's done it and a couple of other people, but not

many. [The two albums] show how much she's grown."

Rounder also offered a limited-edition box set of the LPs that featured

two additional tracks.

Beautiful Creature runs the gamut of love themes, from the

opening track "Daniel" (RealAudio excerpt), a sullen song of longing. The standout "Choose Drugs" (RealAudio excerpt) reflects on the frustration of being involved with someone who has a drug problem, ultimately arriving at the conclusion: "I say, 'It's me or drugs,' you choose drugs."

In between expressions of heartbreak, doubt and disillusionment,

Hatfield finds room for a couple happy love songs, such as the sweet

"Might Be in Love." But "Somebody Is Waiting for Me"(RealAudio excerpt) shouldn't be

included in that minority group, despite its line, "Please forgive me

for finding something real and pure and true."

"People tell me it's this nice happy love song, but I think it's angry," Hatfield said. "It's about someone who's just fallen in love and spending a lot of time with a person, but the old friends and the family can't deal with it, and so the girl's trying to defend the fact that she's happy."

Trying To Grasp Elusive Persona

In discussing her inspiration for Beautiful Creature, Hatfield

pointed to the song "Cool Rock Boy." The tune features the lyrics, "Am I bad enough? Am I dark enough? ... Hey, cool rock boy, what will you take from me?"

"The whole idea of Beautiful Creature is the cool rock boy, in a

way, and a lot of the stuff I'm talking about is my endless fascination

with people who make art and make music and how I can't seem to get my

head around the fact that you can't grasp onto a musical persona; it's

not something that you can have or understand. It's something that is

Godlike; it's not human," she said. "I get really drawn into that side

of people, and it can be really dangerous because sometimes the musical

persona is so removed from the actual person."

Long before she established herself as a solo artist with 1992's Hey

Babe, Hatfield gained recognition on the college rock scene as a

member of the jangle-pop trio the Blake Babies. The group recently reunited to record an album, which features Lemonheads singer Evan Dando as their occasional fourth member. They hope to release the project before the end of the year.

"We're all 10 years older and 10 years crazier," Hatfield said. "It's

still the same chemistry, but it's a different kind of tension —

probably more relaxed."