From an interview at Music Connection by Rob Putnam:

One of her go-to pieces in the studio is the microKORG keyboard with a built-in Mellotron emulator. “I’m addicted to the flute sound and I put it on every album,” Hatfield observes. “There’s a lot of it on Lightning Might Strike. It’s so little, easy to plug in and is transportable. Real Mellotrons are delicate, heavy and big. There’s no way I could get one in my small space but I got to use one at [Cambridge’s] Fort Apache, a studio where I used to work.”

Juliana plays live session versions of Fall Apart, Constant Companion, and My Sister .

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Monte Belmonte and Kaliis Smith, for The Fabulous 413, New England Public Media:

Today has a distinctly femme bent.

And a bit of awe as well, as these two xennials get to meet a Bay State musical icon. Juliana Hatfield, in addition to her solo work, has been a part of Blake Babies, The Lemonheads, Minor Alps, The I Don’t Cares, and a swath of appearances alongside rock’s most influential voices, all while influencing the next generation of guitarists herself.

Her newly released 22nd album, “Lightning Might Strike,” is a return to the textured, punchy rock that was her M.O. for years in her early career while packed with lyrics and progressions that are full of emotions still being processed. We welcome her into the studio for Live Music Friday to hear more of her newest sounds and tales of her journey until now, including her move to the 413.

Juliana’s new album Lightning Might Strike is out today.

She briefly discusses 6 of the tracks in an article at Goldmine by Warren Kurtz:

Harmonies are obviously present on the 6/8 time “Harmonizing with Myself.” Hatfield reflected, “My harmonies are influenced by songs that I grew up on listening to AM radio in the ‘70s like ELO’s stacked vocals, which knocked my socks off, and the Carpenters and the Bee Gees.”

Juliana, speaking to Eric R. Danton at The Boston Globe (article paywalled):

“With the music, I’m trying to show people the real me, the real hidden parts of me, because part of my invisibility is that I don’t really share with people in my life,” Hatfield said. “I’m very reticent and very stoic outwardly, and I suffer on the inside, and I put that in songs.”

Into Music episode notes:

Juliana Hatfield returns with a sometimes dark, sometimes funny but always smart batch of songs informed by grief, aging, and a lifetime of questioning authority.

From the 13th Floor YouTube description:

The 13th Floor's Marty Duda spoke to Juliana Hatfield about making, Lightning Might Strike, a record that, "captures a period of change". Along the way we discuss the life changes that come with aging and the joys of R.E.M.

Kyle Meredith, for Consequence Podcasts:

Juliana Hatfield swung by to talk with Kyle Meredith about Lightning Might Strike, her 20th album and one of her most revealing yet. Written during a year that saw major loss, depression, and a move from her longtime city apartment to a quiet house in the woods, the record finds Hatfield turning personal rubble into power-pop gold. Listen to the episode above or wherever you get your podcasts.

Noah Schaffer, for wbur, with a premiere of Juliana’s new song:

Ultimately, Hatfield considers “Fall Apart” to be an optimistic song. “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,” she said. “I'm just talking about things that are real. Yes, I fall apart sometimes, but I get back on the horse. This is life.

Read more at:

https://www.wbur.org/news/2025/11/17/juliana-hatfield-fall-apart-song-premiere

Juliana has announced a new show: “An Evening With Juliana Hatfield: 'Lightning Might Strike’ Album Release” for Sunday December 14, 2025 at The Burren, Somerville, MA.

This is a 6pm early evening performance with provision for a 2nd show at 9pm depending on ticket sales.

Ticket link:

https://tickets.24hourmusic.com/eventperformances.asp?evt=313

Here’s Juliana’s new song Popsicle, the 2nd single from her forthcoming LP Lightning Might Strike:

Of the song, Juliana says:

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, recognizable idea—the sweet frozen perennial summer treat, in this case—and use it as a symbol of all the dread in my head,

Juliana has announced Lightning Might Strike, her first album of original songs since 2021’s Blood. The release is scheduled for December 12, 2025 with a new single out today. Here’s Scratchers, featuring the album title’s in the lyrics:

Track List

1. Fall Apart

2. Long Slow Nervous Breakdown

3. Popsicle

4. My House Is Not My Dream House

5. Harmonizing With Myself

6. Scratchers

7. Constant Companion

8. Where Are You Now

9. Strong Too Long

10. Wouldn't Change Anything

11. Ashes

12. All I've Got

Artwork

Availability

Ordering info is at American Laundromat Records including the now customary vinyl colour variants, with CD and cassette options too.

https://www.alr-music.com/products/juliana-hatfield-lightning-might-strike

Juliana has written about the 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 where I’d been living for twenty years to a house in a more rural town two hours away where I knew no one when one of my best friends died (“Ashes”), and then my dog died (“Constant Companion”), then my mother was diagnosed with esophagus cancer (“Scratchers”). I was pretty depressed for a solid year (“Long Slow Nervous Breakdown”) and lost and very lonely (“Harmonizing With Myself”). I was thinking about fate and circumstance and about how I’d ended up where I was (“Where Are You Now”).

However much or hard I try, it seems, I’ve never had much control over much in my life.

I should say here that my mother’s younger brother was struck and killed by lighting at the age of 16 and when I asked her how this affected her worldview, she told me that it made her believe that there is a predetermined plan for each of us.

(Read more on the American Laundromat ordering page)

Juliana’s official site has a new look too with some new photos at julianahatfield.com