Juliana Hatfield has announced a new addition to her series of covers albums. Juliana Hatfield Sings ELO drops November 17th via American Laundromat Records, while her rendition of “Don’t Bring Me Down” is out now.
As indie rock royalty, it may come as a surprise that Hatfield would enjoy the pop stylings of Electric Light Orchestra. Yet you could easily trace her inarguably catchy music to the band’s melodies. “ELO songs were always coming on the radio when I was growing up. They were a reliable source of pleasure and fascination,” Hatfield said in a statement. “With this album of covers I wanted to get my hands deep into some of the massive ‘70’s hits but I am also shining a light on some of the later work… My task was to try and break all the things down and reconstruct them subtly until they felt like mine.”
Hatfield had to get into the minutiae of “Don’t Bring Me Down” in order to put her own spin on the 1979 classic. The track “is such a solid construction that trying to rework it initially felt like taking a sledgehammer to concrete,” she said. “I didn’t worry about matching all the original’s exact sounds and parts, and we even dared a few cymbal crashes (the ELO version has one famously unchanging drum loop–no crashes—from start to finish). This is not a radical reinvention but it is a little more bubbly.”
Pre-orders for Juliana Hatfield Sings ELO are ongoing. The LP will be available on CD, cassette, and four different colors of vinyl, and a limited edition 7-inch will feature two songs not present on the album: “I’m Alive” and “When I Was a Boy.” The project follows Hatfield’s other covers albums, 2018’s Juliana Hatfield Sings Olivia Newton-John and 2019’s Juliana Hatfield Sings The Police.
In June, Hatfield will perform at the One Roof Concert for the Homeless in Northampton, MA, and in July, she’ll play two nights at City Winery in New York City.
Juliana Hatfield Sings ELO Artwork:
Juliana Hatfield Sings ELO Tracklist:
01. Sweet Is the Night
02. Can’t Get It Out of My Head
03. Showdown
04. Strange Magic
05. Don’t Bring Me Down
06. Telephone Line
07. Secret Messages
08. Bluebird Is Dead
09. From the End of the World
10. Ordinary Dream
Juliana Hatfield 2023 Tour Dates:
06/17 — Northampton, MA @ One Roof Concert For The Homeless
07/28 — New York, NY @ City Winery (Nuggets 50th Anniversary)
07/29 — New York, NY @ City Winery (Nuggets 50th Anniversary)