WHATEVER, MY LOVE

Whatever, My Love (2015)

The Juliana Hatfield Three

1. Invisible

2. Now That I Have Found You

3. Ordinary Guy

4. If Only We Were Dogs

5. I'm Shy

6. Dog On A Chain

7. If I Could

8. Push Pin

9. Blame The Stylist

10. I Don't Know What To Do With My Hands

11. Wood

12. Parking Lots

13. Only In The Dark (vinyl bonus track)

In 2014, some 21 years after the release of her most (commercially) successful album, Juliana announced the reformation of the band from that era.

The Juliana Hatfield Three was a name she insisted on giving her band with Todd Philips and Dean Fisher in 1993, partly to credit their involvment in the project, partly to deflect some attention / responsibility from Juliana the public persona.

It was a short lived name, not least as it was a bit ridiculous. Two decades on though, fans embraced the return with nostalgia - a reminder of a time when many first heard Juliana's music. It remains many fans' favourite era of her career.

The announcement of a new (2nd) album from the band and a North American tour came with a PledgeMusic project, promising new songs, and reworked old ones. At launch Juliana said:

Todd, Dean, and I have just begun recording with the lovely and talented Tom Beaujour (who worked with me and Matthew [Caws] on the Minor Alps album) at the Nuthouse in Hoboken, New Jersey, and so far it is going great. Some of you may have previously heard some version of some of the songs we are working on. For example, one of the songs we are exploring is “If I Could”. We have always loved this song but there have only ever been demos of it; it has never been properly finished or produced. There are multiple attempted versions of it but the nut has never been quite cracked, and this has always sort of haunted me. Now I feel like I finally have the chance to get it right with Todd and Dean.

We are also exploring electricized band versions of a couple of the punchier acoustic home-recorded songs from my last album, “Wild Animals”. And there will be some other surprises.

Apart from just 2 songs the album's tracks had been heard in some form before:

• Invisible, Now That I Have Found You, Ordinary Guy, I'm Shy, If I Could - first released during Juliana's Download Experiment in 2004-2005

• If Only We Were Dogs - from Sittin' In A Tree..., a 2007 EP recorded with Frank Smith

• Dog On A Chain, Push Pin, Parking Lots - from Wild Animals, a 2013 solo acoustic album

• I Don't Know What To Do With My Hands - from Get There, a 2013 Minor Alps Album

• Only In The Dark - released as a home demo on PledgeMusic during the 2013 Wild Animals campaign

Perhaps a little unexpectedly (given Juliana's run of solo self-released albums), the band signed to American Laundromat Records.

From the label's artist bio :

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.

Soundcloud Streams

AVAILABILITY

February 10, 2015 - Download access for PledgeMusic subscribers.

February 17, 2015 - General release on CD via American Laundromat Records & download at iTunes.

February 24, 2015 - Stream at Spotify.

November, 2015  - Vinyl with bonus track, limited to pre-orders at American Laundromat Records.

August, 2016 - Vinyl (2nd pressing in black), pre-orders at American Laundromat Records and Cargo Records (UK).

PROMOTIONAL POSTER

Interviews & Features

REVIEWS / LINKS

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.

No More Workhorse 

 

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

..it lives and dies by standard Hatfield calculus. The turn following the title phrase of the buoyant, churning “Now That I Have Found You” (“. . . I don’t know what I’m supposed to do”) is a welcome inversion of expectations. The album’s most aggressive song (“Push Pin”) nevertheless features a melodic shift toward the end that fills it with light. And “I’m Shy” is the classic Hatfield that listeners know and love and maybe loathe; a slice of low-self-esteem alt-pop with a catchy vocal hook and tough guitar riff, it’s ingratiatingly appealing, and also precisely what her detractors hated about her long ago.

Marc Hirsh, The Boston Globe

Juliana wasn't happy with a bit of it:

< Get There (2013) | Whatever, My Love (2015) | Wild Stab (2016) >