If It's Too Loud...

Photo by David Doobinin Boston isn't considered one of the cooler cities. Everything shuts down insanely early, we're not exactly known for our dining, and many of our musicians leave for New York, Los Angeles, or even Philadelphia to make it big. However, we occasionally get magical events like Juliana Hatfield hosting her album release show at the one hundred capacity The Burren on a Sunday night. I wasn't sure what to expect with Sunday night's show. Was it a solo show? Would Hatfield have a band? Was it a regular show, or would she focus on the new album? Turns out she played as a trio, and it was a mixture of new songs, favorites, and underappreciated classics. The focus of the show was the just released (and excellent) Lightning Might Strike , and although I was a fan of the album after the first listen, after hearing her classics played alongside the brand new songs, the new album is as great as anything else she's ever released in the past forty or so years....

Photo by David Doobinin Boston alt-rock legend Juliana Hatfield has a new single out from her upcoming album, and this one is going to make virtually every one of her fans delighted. "Fall Apart" captures the mood of her earlier, 90's music and combines it with her more recent, more laid back sound. It lands in this great middle ground between The Juliana Hatfield Three and Adult Contemporary. Hatfield was one of the stand-out artists during the 90's alt-rock boom, and "Fall Apart" shows why she's still one of the most beloved and respected artists decades into her career. I'll challenge anyone to hold "Fall Apart" up to any of her work from the 90's. This is truly one of her most compelling songs she's released. Juliana Hatfield says of her latest single: “I do make a point to say I fall apart now and then. It's not that I have fallen apart and you can never put me back together. I'm just talking about things that are real....

Photo by David Doobinin If you're a fan of Juliana Hatfield's 90's music, you're going to love her latest single. "Popsicle" rocks harder than we've heard from Hatfield in a while, while still keeping that older and wiser feeing her music has had for her last few albums. It's a fuzzy, midtempo song with crashing drums and killer melodies. I challenge you to listen to this one and not spend the rest of the day with "Popsicle, drip drip" in your head. Plus, it has that 90's moody vibe that artists of today simply can't match no matter how hard they try. As great as "Popsicle" is, it's also kind of a bummer, but we're certainly here for that. Juliana Hatfield says of her latest single: "Could ‘Popsicle’ take the prize for ‘feel-bad song of the winter’? It certainly doesn’t pull any punches in its description of mid-life disillusionment. But sonically I was going for fun and catchy, as ever. I love to take a simple,...

Photo by David Doobinin It's always a good day when Boston alt-rock icon Juliana Hatfield releases new music, and yesterday was one of those days. Her latest single, "Scratchers," sees Hatfield firmly embracing her singer-songwriter/Adult Contemporary era, but it's still filled with plenty of fuzz and grit. The song feels like a natural progression from Hatfield's classic 90's songs, and is pretty much everything we'd want a new song from Hatfield to sound like in 2025. In fact, at times "Scratchers" sounds like it could be a lost b-side from one of her late 90's albums. Plus, this might be the best that her vocals have ever sounded. We can't say this about many of our favorites from the 80's and 90's, but Juliana Hatfield continues to release great music. Juliana Hatfield says of her upcoming album: “It was a difficult time for me when I started working on this album. I had just uprooted myself from the city apartment building wh...

Photo by Pat Piaseki Will Dailey is both a legendary Boston singer-songwriter and one of the most underrated artists around today. His latest single, "Make Another Me," is one of the most compelling songs released this year. It's a relatively simple alt-rock singer-songwriter track driven by Dailey's vocals as well as a guest appearance by Juliana Hatfield. The song has a gentle vibe while still filled with deep angst and emotion. It's the heart on his sleeves emotions that makes "Make Another Me" such an impactful song. The song has such a mesmerizingly beautiful touch, and then switches over to a harder rock sound while keeping the gentle sound intact. Will Dailey has outdone himself with this one. Will Dailey says of his new single: “I’m occasionally haunted by all the information we give away—we now give away our biological information, too. Sometimes I think they just need to get on with it and make us duplicates of ourselves to help cope.” You can ...

Photo by David Doobinin I'm pretty sure I've never heard ELO's song "Telephone Line" before. I even listened to it before writing this, and I'm at least ninety-five percent sure. But, I love Juliana Hatfield and virtually everything she touches, so of course I'll give her version of the song a listen or three. Her version of "Telephone Line" is a 70's style power ballad more along the lines of what ELO would sound like than classic 90's Hatfield. But it's really fun hearing Hatfield pull off a song in this style so expertly. I don't think this is going to convert me into ELO fandom, but I can see myself grooving to this one for a while. You can listen to Juliana Hatfield's take on "Telephone Line" below. Juliana Hatfield Sings ELO is due out November 17 on American Laundromat Records, and is available for pre-order here . For more on Juliana Hatfield, check out the artist's website . Upcoming tour dates are below...