Juliana Hatfield has been hugely prolific in the period since this blog started in 2017, releasing albums Pussycat, Weird and Blood along with her cover albums of songs by Olivia Newton John, The Police and ELO. It’s been hard to keep up, even for dedicated long time fans like myself. She’s also been writing a brilliant Substack newsletter too. This new album Lightning Might Strike was recorded after she moved to the countryside and went through a difficult period in her life.
What’s always consistent about Juliana’s music since her 90s beginnings is her brilliant voice and the catchy guitar hooks she makes. The older she gets the less wistful and yearning her tone has become but she’s still a uniquely vulnerable lyricist.
The opening songs ‘Fall Apart’ and ‘Long Slow Nervous Breakdown’ are about how life unravels – randomly, consistently, over years so you don’t even notice how bad it really has become.
On ‘Popsicle’ she admits ‘my hopes and dreams are in decline’, as though this state of life is too entrenched to change. Juliana has written about her experience with an eating disorder in the past and this song references this struggle again. The music is so breezy that it’s shocking to realise how dark the themes are.
Even when she sings about something that should be a positive in her life – like on ‘My House is Not My Dream House’ – it hasn’t worked out the way she wants. The house is real but it’s also a metaphor for all the things which you can’t control. She can’t stop the water, vermin, even the peace and quiet becomes unnerving when she’s alone. She concludes if she’d planned for her future responsibly she’d have a ‘fireplace’ and a ‘family’. The song is just devastating really, showcasing the struggles of single women to find themselves a place in the world. This song also lays bare the financial problems of independent musicians too. Having a roof over your head doesn’t mean you’ve found a home. The American ‘dream’ of home ownership is exposed with nightmarish reality.
‘Strong Too Long’ admits that those ‘stoic’ ones who seem strong on the surface are ‘barely holding on’. Despite it all she finds a way to dream of a better future, singing ‘I want more than this / I want happiness’. There’s regret tempered with acceptance on ‘Wouldn’t Change Anything’. On ‘Ashes’ she deals with grief and loss, showing just how much she’s been going through.
The final song ‘All I’ve Got’ is a tribute to music itself, how it brings her healing and has saved her life. There’s a line in the song ‘I woke up singing’ which just sounds so beautiful and uplifting.
Maybe that’s why she’s so prolific – it’s the music she lives for, the music that keeps her going. Unsurprisingly her next project is already lined up – an REM covers album. To hold on, to keep creating, to keep singing is the purpose of life itself. Lightning Might Strike is a powerful album from an artist who offers us a mirror to see ourselves in and a spark shining through the darkness.
BUY: https://julianahatfield.bandcamp.com/album/lightning-might-strike
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