Whatever, My Love - the 2nd (or sophomore as those funny Americans like call it) album by The Juliana Hatfield Three from 2015 is being reissued on vinyl via a 2nd (sophomore) pressing.
Availability is estimated for August, 2016.
Fans of the long player who missed out first time round can now pre-order at American Laundromat, or via Cargo Records in the UK.
It's all eBay news round here.
American Laundromat Records are auctioning a test pressing of the forthcoming vinyl version of the Juliana Hatfield Three LP:
Only four "Whatever, My Love" test pressings were cut. We gave one to our mastering engineer and kept one for our archive. This is one of two we're offering on eBay to the highest bidder. Ships in it's white paper sleeve. Good luck!!!
Bidding ends tomorrow (July 8) with shipping estimated for next week.
Regular orders for the LP are not due to ship until November 2015 (delayed from the original plan of August).
It's impossible for a band to announce an album any more without a deluge of pleas for vinyl. I mean, look at the responses to this tweet by Wolf Alice yesterday about iTunes pre-orders for their debut album.
So then, in response to similar demand, American Laundromat Records are now taking orders for JH3's Whatever, My Love on LP, with a choice of colours. Shipping is estimated for August 2015 and there's an as yet unspecified bonus track involved.
Update March 22 The release date is August 17, 2015 and the bonus track is Only In The Dark - previously heard as a home demo during the 2013 PledgeMusic campaign for Wild Animals.
Important to note that ALR say pressing will be limited to these pre-orders.
Update June 8 The release date has been put back to 'early November, 2015' due to the processing plant running over capacity.
The new Juliana Hatfield Three album is now available to stream for Spotify users.
As previously announced it is available on CD from American Laundromat Records and on download from iTunes.
There may be other formats to come:
contemplating a possible vinyl release of "Whatever, My Love" sometime in the no-tsod-ista-nt future
— Juliana Hatfield (@julianahatfield) February 24, 2015
Another selection of recent reviews for Whatever, My Love:
Whatever, My Love, despite its plainspoken lyrics and shrugging title, doesn’t ignore the complicated in favor of these simple pleasures. In fact, in acknowledging the darkness on “Push Pin” or “If I Could” or “Wood”, the Juliana Hatfield Three argues that simple pleasures might be the hardest to come by and the hardest one. That is the central tension of the record, and one that keeps things taut even when “Invisible” runs through the chorus a few too many times or when songs like “Now That I Have Found You” bury the best elements—the jagged guitar phrasings—under other, sleeker production.
6/10
Matthew Fiander, PopMatters
By marrying her wry, world-weary songs to the brighter, optimistic punch of the JHT, Hatfield winds up with a record that delivers a hard, immediate hit -- particularly on the cynical pop "Ordinary Guy" and grind of "If Only We Were Dogs" -- but leaves a lasting scar that's soothed by the melodies and that ringing, hooky pop that is often labeled as collegiate but now feels deeper and richer in the hands of rockers who never deny their impending middle age. In other words, it's the best kind of reunion because it's not only lacking in nostalgia, it shows that some things can be better the second time around.
4.5/5
Stephen Thomas Erlewine, AllMusic
Throughout her career, Hatfield's strongest work's emerged when she's clicked with her collaborators. She made magic with the Blake Babies. And she made magic with Fisher and Philips. So, for longtime fans, Whatever, My Love gives reason for optimism. And, of the album, Hatfield's said: "We haven’t totally reinvented the wheel or anything." Which is what you want to hear. She goes back to her earlier timeless sound, one that emerged from punk, and skips the saccharine singer-songwriter stuff.
6.1/10
Brandon Stosuy, Pitchfork
It more than stands on its own as a wry, uncompromising, unapologetically jangly take on living with the general discomfort that comes along with being a modern human. And it’s reassuring to hear that, 20 years on, Juliana Hatfield still has just as much bite as the dogs she’s been singing about.
Pete Chianca, Wicked Local
The jangle-rock numbers like “I’m Shy”, “Push Pin”, and put-a-smile-on-your-face “If Only We Were Dogs” particularly have catch, but there’s also some sweet sadness in songs such as “Invisible”, “If I Could”, and “I Don’t Know What To Do With My Hands”. There are some relatively not as good tracks – “Now That I Have Found You” is too simply cheery, while the processional rhythm behind “Woods” doesn’t work that well (and the guy described in “Ordinary Guy” seems pretty rare & hard to match…) – but it’s what you wanted from a revived Juliana Hatfield Three.
Ted Chase, QRO
There are one or two missteps, the stuttering tempo of Wood doesn’t really work and the lyrics for Ordinary Guy, I’m Shy and the busy Push Pin are a little hard to listen to coming from a woman in her forties (“oh I want an ordinary guy”, “if only we were dogs it would so easy to be happy”). Much better are the more relaxed, sparser tracks. I Don’t Know What To Do With My Hands has the light charm of late period Lemonheads, and moody closer Parking Lots succeeds by virtue of being a departure from the rest of the album, giving the keyboards prominence with a rather muted vocal from Hatfield.
Whatever, My Love has reminded me how much I enjoy Juliana Hatfield’s music. While her solo material and endeavors with other artists hold their own merit, there is something to be said about the chemistry between Hatfield, Phillips and Fisher. They have been able to step right back into the Juliana Hatfield Three as if they were never apart.
Chris Martin, Examiner
What could have been a tired rehash of past glories is actually quite the opposite. There are memorable moments and songs that last beyond their final note in your memory. When record this loops round on repeat, you are glad that it’s back again.
D R Pautsch, Soundblab
Today!
Whatever, My Love - the new album from The Juliana Hatfield Three - the kind of follow up to 1993's Become What You Are - is released today on American Laundromat Records.
If you weren't part of the PledgeMusic gang who received the album last week you should be able to find it from your retailer of choice, direct from American Laundromat and as a download on your iTunes in most territories.
American Laundromat are currently streaming the whole thing too.
The Boston Globe have reviewed the record today, not altogether favourably. Juliana has had her say on what they said:
And, because we're all 2015 now, here's a video review by The Daily Guru:
There will be a liveontomorrow.co.uk review ™ in due course, but not just yet. I want to give it several more listens.
"If I Could" from the upcoming sophomore release, "Whatever, My Love" by The Juliana Hatfield Three. Out February 17th on American Laundromat Records.
The 4th track from Whatever, My Love to get the pre-release streaming treatment is I'm Shy - another of the re-recorded versions of songs previously released on mp3 a decade back.
The album's out on general release tomorrow of course.
"I'm Shy" is a song about being shy.
— Juliana Hatfield (@julianahatfield) February 16, 2015
A bunch of the initial reviews for the new album:
Whatever, My Love arrives with an extra bit of anticipation from Hatfield enthusiasts. And, much like its forebear, the album's 12 tunes are tight, tidy pop-rockers, presented in her characteristic straightforward-yet-slightly-skewed manner. See the needlepoint guitar that tears through the otherwise unadorned power-pop chugger "Push Pin," or how, on "Wood," her voice virtually mimics every twist of the circular chord progression.
4/5
Richard Bienstock, Billboard
While Whatever, My Love certainly sounds fresh by 2015 standards, the album still succeeds in bringing longtime listeners back to the time when “Alternative” truly meant something.
Hatfield has always had a knack of taking a simple mid-tempo song and making it infectious. The group accomplish that with the head-swaying "Now That I Have Found You", and the hook-filled earworm "If I Could". It's a pop rock song that will stick in your brain well after the album is over.
8/10
"Wood" from the upcoming Juliana Hatfield Three sophomore release "Whatever, My Love" available February 17th on American Laundromat Records.
American Laundromat Records are now streaming a third song from the forthcoming Juliana Hatfield Three album, Whatever, My Love.
Wood is one of two bonafide all new songs on the record.
Juliana calls the song "the opposite of 'I Wanna Sex You Up'" and describes it as being "about numbness and dissociation – feeling like a block of wood." Speaking to Rolling Stone, she says:
There are mood swings in both mind and body. Like I've said before in songs like 'I Got No Idols,' sometimes 'I don't like to be touched.' How do you handle it when you feel dead and numb? When your significant other wants affection and you don't? It's complicated and mysterious, biological and psychological and emotional.
It sounds very much like a Juliana Hatfield Three song should in 2015. Good work.
Here we go then. This track is taken from the forthcoming Juliana Hatfield Three album, Whatever, My Love.
It's a new recording of a song first heard in the 'honor downloads experiment' a decade ago.
Juliana:
I have always loved this song and I always wanted it to be done up properly and although this is not shockingly or radically different than the demo, I really love it.
Folk over on the PledgeMusic comments recall Juliana performing this song at the Bush Hall shows in London back in 2006. The website you're reading now exists because of those shows.
The song is rather special, isn't it?
The forthcoming album from the reunited Juliana Hatfield Three will be titled Whatever, My Love.
Loving the deference to the 1993 artwork.
We have a scheduled release date of February 17, 2015.
Perhaps a little unexpectedly (given Juliana's run of solo self-released albums), the band are signed to American Laundromat Records, who now have the album listed:
The twelve songs on "Whatever, My Love" are unsentimental, funny, and honest. Hatfield, humble as always, acknowledges that, "We haven’t totally reinvented the wheel or anything" with this new album and that the recordings exhibit "stuff I am sort of known for, I guess": a guitar-centric melodicism, and lyrical examinations of emotional confusion. "But I am a lot more confident now than I was then with the first album. And I had more fun recording this one."
Hatfield’s songs’ subjects still don’t know why people are the way they are. But the music is fresh and inspired, gorgeous and punk, sleazy and sweet; fully present and alive. With their new album, the Juliana Hatfield Three has in a sense responded to its former directive to "become what you are" by making an album that is exactly what it wants to be, identifiable in its acceptance--and celebration--of the unknowable and unsolvable.
American Laundromat are now taking pre-orders which include bundle options for buttons, a decal and a t-shirt.
The shirt is a different design to that offered by Juliana through PledgeMusic and is available unbundled from the CD for $24 plus postage.
The tracklist:
A sad face emoji for the moment you realise that Blame The Stylist and Wood appear to be the only previously unheard songs here.
The following have been heard in some form before:
1,2,3,5,7 - first released during Juliana's Download Experiment in 2004-2005
4 - from Sittin' In A Tree..., a 2007 EP recorded with Frank Smith
6,8,12 - from Wild Animals, a 2013 solo acoustic album
10 - from Get There, a 2013 Minor Alps Album
They are all new recordings though and let's not forget that the involvement of Tom Beaujour in the studio with Minor Alps helped transform June 6th to Away Again last year.
Also, February isn't far off now is it? Good times ahead.
