Is it still 1997? Or maybe 2010? You can’t tell. LIGHTNING MIGHT STRIKE runs along without any fuss, 90s indie underground darling Juliana Hatfield plays airy alternative rock on her 21st album that doesn’t require large amplitudes. In addition, people who are now between their late thirties and mid-fifties can reminisce at the same time, but also clean up the place at the same time.
Nothing knocks you out of your shoes here
This may sound nastier than it is intended, because there are a few album highlights. The polyphonic mixed, time-shifted singing on “Long Slow Nervous Breakdown” or the single “Popsicle”, which beautifully wraps the disillusionment of midlife in catchy bubblegum pop vibes.
It is often forgotten that Juliana Hatfield always had one of the most beautiful voices of the blessed indie nineties and noughties, both with the Lemonheads and with her solo albums. LIGHTNING MIGHT STRIKE reminds you of that again. But nothing here knocks you out of your shoes – that’s why it’s a great album.
This review appears in Musikexpress 1/2026.