First Impressions: Juliana Hatfield Sings ELO

As I write, the darkness of night is giving way to light, with the colorful gradients between dim and bright perfectly accented by Juliana Hatfield’s latest multi-hued collection. Since 2018, as most fans know, she’s alternated all-original releases with collections of covers. The first set of borrowed tunes celebrated the oeuvre of Olivia Newton-John, while its 2019 sequel found her arrested by the Police. The former’s goofy charm left me suspended in time, just about, while the latter came across as a by-the-books procedural—but much of both reactions, no doubt, has and had to do with my personal preferences and prejudices regarding pop, rock and Sting.

Sings ELO is a fun if wistful outing that harkens back to the ONJ tribute, however. It’s pop, it’s rock, and even disco-lite in spots, featuring lush vocal arrangements and melodies that—as with the original songs—often conjure the Beatles, Mott the Hoople and “Secret Agent Man.” It’s tart-flavored cotton candy, if you will, sans the sickly sweet aftertaste. 

Let me back up a second: The only anything I’ve ever owned by Electric Light Orchestra was the “Magic”-laden Xanadu soundtrack in 1980, which found Jeff Lynne’s group and ONJ in an odd vinyl timeshare. Beyond that, I knew them primarily from whatever made the air on Top 40 and AOR radio in the late 1970s and early ‘80s. (For those too young to have lived it: AOR = album-oriented rock, which basically mixed-and-matched tracks from the late ‘60s onward.) It’s weird, really, how Juliana’s versions of several of their songs sparked long-hibernating memories to awaken as if groggy bears stomping through the woods in spring. “Don’t Bring Me Down,” indeed.

It’s also remarkable how, after listening to this album, one can easily hear ELO’s influence on Juliana’s own development. ELO combines pop and rock, with light progressive overtones and melancholic undertows accenting much of the music. (By “progressive” I mean prog-rock, not liberal politics.) “Strange Magic,” “Telephone Line” and “Secret Messages,” for instance, foreshadow much of Juliana’s own catalog.  

It should be noted that two associated tracks aren’t on the album, but a limited-edition single: “I’m Alive,” which was a 1980 hit from the Xanadu timeshare; and its b-side, the autobiographical “When I Was a Boy,” which is a 2015 song from Jeff Lynne’s ELO (as the group was then known). The former takes me back to the summer of 1980, when I turned 15, while the latter takes me back via its nostalgic and knowing lyrics: “When I was a boy, I had a dream/And radio waves kept me company/In those beautiful days/When there was no money….” Songs on the radio resonated in a way then they just don’t now.      

While the album—which I heartily recommend—is available to stream everywhere, the single is not. Do yourself a favor and, at the least, buy it either from Bandcamp or the American Laundromat Records website.