JULIANA HATFIELD SINGS THE POLICE

Juliana Hatfield Sings The Police (2019)

Juliana Hatfield

1. Can't Stand Losing You
2. Canary In A Coalmine
3. Next To You
4. Hungry For You (J'aurais Toujours Faim De Toi)
5. Roxanne
6. Every Breath You Take
7. Hole In My Life
8. De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da
9. Murder By Numbers
10. Landlord
11. Rehumanize Yourself
12. It's Alright For You

Personnel

Juliana Hatfield – vocals, guitar, bass guitar, keyboards
Chris Anzalone – drums on "Hole in My Life", "Murder by Numbers", "Landlord", "Rehumanize Yourself", and "It's Alright" for You"
James Bridges – machine drum on "Roxanne"
Ed Valauskas – bass guitar on "Canary in a Coalmine", "Hole in My Life", "Landlord", "Rehumanize Yourself", and "It's Alright for You"

Availability

The album was released on November 15, 2019.

Vinyl, CD, and Cassette versions were available via a multitude of ordering options direct from American Laundromat Records and via bandcamp.

Newbury Comics and Urban Outfitters also had limited edition colour vinyl versions.

In advance of the album the first song released was De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da on August 1, 2019

Next To You premiered on September 26, 2019 with an interview at billboard:

"Next to You," the first track from the Police's 1978 debut album Outlandos d'Amour, presented a challenge for Hatfield, however. "It really was an intuitive reworking of that," says Hatfield, who abandoned "an awful '80s metal ballad" version of the song before settling on this version. "Their recording of it is so perfect in its imperfection. It's unpolished and raw; That whole album sounds like three guys bashing out a song in a room together. So I didn't even want to attempt to do a rocking version of it like that. I don't want it to be compared to the original. There's no way I could come close. So I just went in a completely different direction and slowed down to half time."

Juliana's comments on the original press release, August 2019:

With "Juliana Hatfield Sings The Police" I am continuing the project that I started last year with my "Juliana Hatfield Sings Olivia Newton-John" album. I hope to continue to go deep into covering artists that were important to me in my formative years. The songs I’ve chosen seem to resonate in the present moment. “Rehumanize Yourself”, “Landlord”, and “Murder By Numbers” explore ugly kinds of nationalism, abuses of power, and the mendacity of large swaths of the ruling class. And then there are the timeless, relatable psychodramas: “Every Breath You Take”, “Can’t Stand Losing You”, “Canary In A Coalmine”. In the Police, each player’s style was so distinctive, accomplished and unique that I didn’t even attempt to match any of it; for anyone to try and play drums like Stewart Copeland would be a thankless, pointless task that is bound to fail. Instead, I simplified and deconstructed, playing a lot of the drums myself, in my rudimentary, caveman style. Chris Anzalone (Roomful Of Blues) played the rest of the drums. Ed Valauskas (the Gravel Pit) and I each played about half of the bass parts, while I did all the guitars and keyboards. I listened to a lot of the Police when I was preparing and making this album, and their recordings are as refreshing and exciting as ever. I hope that my interpretations of these songs can inspire people to keep loving the Police like I did, and still do.

The Artwork

Reviews

Chris Ingalls, PopMatters (8/10):

As Juliana Hatfield has demonstrated, the Police songbook is wide and varied enough to be open to endless interpretation. As she has demonstrated with this album as well as the Olivia Newton-John project, she's a musician who is dedicated to paying tribute to the music of her youth and finding new and interesting ways to present it.

Andy Crump, Paste (7.6/10):

You will not at any point feel like you’re hearing The Police for the first time while Juliana Hatfield Sings the Police streams on your laptop, but you will feel like you’re hearing them from a new angle.

Pablo Gorindi, Associated Press:

Among the best versions is “Murder By Numbers,” originally a jazzy tune also covered that way by Frank Zappa, which sounds here like it’s been adapted for a remake of “A Clockwork Orange” as Hatfield emphasizes the song’s violence and dread over its morbid humor. “Hungry for You (J’aurais Toujours Faim De Toi)” turns into a high speed J.J. Cale track with some very Cars-like keyboards near the end, while “Next to You” seems to have arrived straight from the early 1990s indie craze.

Hal Horowitz, American Songwriter (3/5):

Hatfield’s choices are an intriguing mix of hits like “Roxanne” and “Every Breath You Take” with less iconic tracks such as “Landlord” (an obscure B-side) and “Rehumanize Yourself,” a deeper cut from Ghost in the Machine, the latter two played close to the original versions. The project is more intriguing the further Hatfield strays from how the Police recorded these songs, such as when she removes reggae touches from “Hole in My Life,” infusing it with a far darker tone.

Adrian P, pennyblackmusic.co.uk:

Exploring the less familiar material brings up a greater consistency in terms of invention and hooks. Hence, lots of imagination and charm comes packed into effervescently bouncy skanks through ‘Canary in a Coalmine’, ‘Hungry For You’ and ‘(J'Aurais Toujours Faim De Toi)’; a swirling spin through ‘Hole in My Life’; an effects-heavy warping of ‘Rehumanize Yourself’; and terrific punk-meets-college-rock stomps through ‘Murder By Numbers’, ‘Landlord’, ‘Next To You’ and ‘It’s Alright For You’.

Interviews

From an article by Justin Chadwick for Albumism where Juliana comments on each of the songs on the new record:

“Every Breath You Take”

This is another one of those deceptive creations that at first makes you think you are listening to a straight-up love song. But really it’s pretty twisted, sung from the point of view of a creepy stalker, a person who won’t go away, who is obsessed with an ex. The song structure—the way it moves and flows and builds—is perfection. It’s sonic ambrosia. I can’t get enough of it. This song is the gift that keeps on giving

Juliana, from an interview by Dave Rayburn for Discussions Magazine covering a number of areas around the project:

DR: ...Why The Police?

JH: I sort of did it on a whim. Actually, I was preparing to do Phil Collins covers, and then sort of at the last minute… you know what, I don’t really have an emotional connection to Phil Collins. And, there’s just not enough depth there. So, I just went sort of automatically to The Police because I do have an emotional connection from childhood. They were a big, big thing for me during my adolescence. Same as with the Olivia Newton-John record. It’s like I’m being drawn toward artists that were very important to me at a certain time in my life. I mean, I have a plan to do more of these albums and I think that in the future I’ll be able to look back and say, “Oh yes, these all had something to do with what I became.”

From an interview by Bruce Fagerstrom for Magnet Magazine:

[BF] Sting has commented that the surface prettiness of “Every Breath You Take” lulls some people into missing the sinister nature of the lyrics. As a singer how do you approach songs with such strong narratives? I’d throw “Roxanne” into that as well.

[JH] I know these songs and the melodies so well that I almost don’t even think about the lyrics because they are like second nature to me. Especially when I am singing; singing is such a physical act for me. I rarely think about the words I am singing. It’s just trying to push the notes out. But when I listen, I am drawn to things that have a darkness, have more than one layer of meaning. I get bored by love songs, I don’t relate to them. If “Every Breath You Take” were a straight-up “I love you forever, baby” song, it would bore me.

Juliana, from an interview with Will Hodge for GRAMMY.com, on the genesis of the project:

Almost immediately after releasing the Olivia Newton-John album, I started thinking about who I should do next. For a while, I was actually thinking of doing Phil Collins, both his solo songs and also his time in Genesis. I had already started to make a list of his songs when one day I was listening to "Long Long Way to Go" from No Jacket Required. Sting sings background vocals on that song and as soon as I heard his voice, I was immediately struck by the thought, "Wait, I should really be doing The Police."

I have much more of a connection to The Police and was a bigger fan of them than I ever was of Phil Collins. Apart from two Genesis albums that I really love, Duke and Abacab, Phil Collins is more of a singles artist to me. But growing up, I was truly fanatical about The Police and had all their albums and knew all the deep cuts. I just switched my brain over to Police mode and that became the new concept.

On Roxanne, from an interview by Dan Alleva for The Aquarian:

[DA] I think a perfect example of that on the record is your rendition of “Roxanne.” You completely deconstructed and reinterpreted it in much darker context. It sounds as though you were really trying to underscore those lyrics and the narrative as well as you could.

[JH] Well, actually I think I didn’t really have a clear concept when I went to record that. I was thinking that I can’t do reggae. I’m not a person who can play reggae authentically or anything like it. I’m not going to even attempt to go there, because it would seem false and poser-ish. I was just thinking like, ‘Oh, take away the band and just make it really stark and it’ll be like me talking to my friend, the prostitute, and trying to help her out of the life of the street.’ And really, that’s the whole concept. Just break it down so it’s like me pleading in a way with her, like, ‘Come on, you can have a better life.’ It’s sort of supposed to be like a conversation between me and my friend, Roxanne, the prostitute. It’s very raw. The situation is very raw, and to me—I don’t want to make a big thing about it, because I think that sex workers have a right to do that kind of work—but when I do think about prostitution, I just think like, ‘Ugh… what a harsh life that must be.’

[DA] It’s an interesting construct because with the original version, it’s a man speaking to a woman, and with your interpretation, it’s two women having a conversation with each other. I don’t know what the right word for it is, but it seems—I don’t want to say that Sting was disingenuous—but the patriarchal nature in which Roxanne’s plight is narrated by a man is different than how you presented the theme.

[JH] I think it’s more sympathetic coming from me. Because in the Police version, it is certainly a john who’s in love with a prostitute, and he’s just really selfish and jealous. Like, he doesn’t want this person that he’s in love with to do it with any other men. And it’s really selfish, I think. My version is not selfish; I’m trying to help my sister out of that life rather than just be like, ‘I don’t ever want you to [see] any other men.’ It’s about being better to yourself.

Bonus Single

Previously available as part of an exclusive pre-order bundle, the bonus single Truth Hits Everybody was released on April 10, 2020.

Credits

Production Credits: Produced by Juliana Hatfield Engineered by James Bridges at Q Division Studios, Somerville, MA Mixed by Juliana and James Mastered by Patrick DiCenso

Player Credits: Bass on Canary In A Coalmine, Hole In My Life, Landlord, Rehumanize Yourself, and It's Alright For You by Ed Valauskas. Drums on Hole In My Life, Murder By Numbers, Landlord, Rehumanize Yourself, and It's Alright For You by Chris Anzalone. Machine drums on Roxanne manipulated by James Bridges. All the rest of the drums and bass, plus all the guitars, keyboards, and vocals by Juliana.

The Original Police Songs

Here are unofficial Apple Music and Spotify playlists of the songs Juliana covers. (I made this using songs licensed for streaming in the UK so hopefully they'll work worldwide)

Apple Music
Spotify