Juliana Hatfield – Juliana Hatfield Sings ELO (2023) [FLAC 24bit/48kHz]

Juliana Hatfield – Juliana Hatfield Sings ELO (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 39:04 minutes | 487 MB | Genre: Alternative Rock, Female Vocal
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © American Laundromat Records

ELO songs were always coming on the radio when I was growing up. They were a reliable source of pleasure and fascination (except for “Fire On High” which scared the heck out of me). 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 (“Ordinary Dream” from 2001’s “Zoom” album, “Secret Messages” and “’From The End Of The World”, both from the ‘80’s).

Thematically, I identify with the loneliness and alienation and the outerspace-iness in the songs I chose. (I have always felt like I am part alien, not fully belonging to or in this Earth world.) Sonically, ELO recordings are like an amusement park packed with fun musical games with layers and layers of varied, meticulous parts for your ears to explore; production curiosities; huge, gorgeous stacks of awe-inspiring vocal harmony puzzles. My task was to try and break all the things down and reconstruct them subtly until they felt like mine.

Overall, I stuck pretty close to the originals’ structures while figuring out new ways to express or reference the unique and beloved ELO string arrangements. An orchestra would have been difficult or impossible for me to manage to record, nor did I think there was any point in trying to copy those parts as they originally were. Why not try to reimagine them within my zone of limitations? In some cases, I transposed string parts onto guitars, or keyboards, and I even sung some of them (as in “Showdown” and “Bluebird Is Dead”).

Recording the album was a kind of complicated and drawn-out process since I was doing all of my tracks at home in my bedroom (drums and bass were done by Chris Anzalone and Ed Valauskas, respectively [in their own recording spaces]), and I kept running into technology problems that would frustrate me and slow me up. But eventually I got it all done. A labor of love. -JulianaThe third in a series of tribute albums from Juliana Hatfield to her idols, Juliana Hatfield Sings ELO finds the singer/songwriter tackling the catalog of an artist that is known for their lush, layered arrangements — the kind of recordings that are the opposite of Hatfield’s largely handmade recordings. Part of the charm of her Sings series is how Hatfield addresses these kinds of challenges, finding ways to rearrange familiar records so they retain their original vibe while also bearing her own idiosyncratic imprint. With Juliana Hatfield Sings ELO, she achieves this by balancing classic rock radio staples with deep cuts — she closes the proceedings with “Ordinary Dream,” pulled from Electric Light Orchestra’s excellent latter-day album Zoom — then concentrating on the elements that give ELO a light, sweet airiness. That’s a spirit that easily translates to the stripped-down surroundings Hatfield creates by herself, along with drums from Chris Anzalone and bass by Ed Valauskas. Choosing to transpose strings to guitar and voice helps Hatfield achieve a sense of intimacy while retaining a sense of romantic grandeur, a combination that gives Juliana Hatfield Sings ELO a distinctly warm and comforting feeling without succumbing to the pitfalls of nostalgia.
– Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Tracklist:

1. Juliana Hatfield – Sweet Is The Night (03:30)
2. Juliana Hatfield – Can’t Get It Out Of My Head (04:18)
3. Juliana Hatfield – Showdown (03:31)
4. Juliana Hatfield – Strange Magic (03:56)
5. Juliana Hatfield – Don’t Bring Me Down (03:59)
6. Juliana Hatfield – Telephone Line (04:44)
7. Juliana Hatfield – Secret Messages (03:59)
8. Juliana Hatfield – Bluebird Is Dead (04:24)
9. Juliana Hatfield – From The End Of The World (03:14)
10. Juliana Hatfield – Ordinary Dream (03:25)

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