Juliana Hatfield could, as they say, sing the phonebook and we’d listen. So it’s all the more captivating when she covers someone like the Police. Hatfield just dropped a Rachel Lichtman-directed video for her cover of “Can’t Stand Losing You,” off of 2019’s Juliana Hatfield Sings the Police (via American Laundromat).
Hatfield fronts a band of Julianas in the slick video for the track (she played all the instruments on the recording), her vocals adding new sheen to the 1978 classic. The three versions of Hatfield represent Sting, Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland — with a rare peek at the musician on the drums. In her capable hands, the song sounds like it could have come out today — rather than more than 40 years ago. Plus, the suit Sting Juliana sports is sharp.
Hatfield has the rare talent of making well-known songs her own; she’s put her own spin on everyone from Jeff Lynne to the Foo Fighters (on 2012’s self-titled covers album). The former Blake Babies frontwoman has also previously released Juliana Hatfield Sings Olivia Newton-John and contributed to American Laundromat’s compilation, I Saved Latin! A Tribute to Wes Anderson.
The musician released her most recent record of original music, Weird, in 2019, and before that, 2017’s Pussycat — perhaps the most acerbic anti-Trump album of all time. “It gave me something to focus on every day rather than just spewing anxiety and anger,” she previously said of the album. “A few months ago, it was just so awful, and I know it was the same for a lot of people. The anxiety levels were over the top really unhealthy. It became physically unhealthy, and I’m sure a lot of people can relate.”