Juliana Hatfield – Lightning Might Strike – Album Review
by Killian Laher

You have to admire Juliana Hatfield’s musical career.  For the most part, she has avoided tapping into nineties nostalgia and is ploughing her own furrow.  She has been alternating covers albums with her own material. On this, the 21st solo album of her prolific career, it’s an album of original material.

As far as we can tell, she has pretty much written and recorded this entirely by herself.  She’s very much in ‘Hatfield’ mode from the opener Fall Apart, a vaguely rocking, smooth-sounding song.  Despite its title, Long Slow Nervous Breakdown has a warm, almost goosebump-inducing melody.  Popsicle belies its title to rock a bit harder with growlier guitars, while Scratchers, as the title suggests, has slightly scratchy guitars.  Later, Where Are You Now, is a relatively simple but enjoyable song with a slightly hesitant melody, while the penultimate song, the drum-free Ashes is spare and soulful.

You get the picture: twelve songs which won’t upset anyone or change anyone’s world either.  The album sounds slick overall, with the songs blending into each other.  You would love to see Juliana Hatfield go for a really raw sound, but I suspect those days are gone.

Scratchers