Juliana Hatfield – “Next To You” (The Police Cover)
Juliana Hatfield released a whole album of Olivia Newton-John covers last year, and after following it with a set of originals called Weird this year, she’s back again with a whole album of Police songs. Juliana Hatfield Sings The Police is coming in November. Upon announcing the project she shared her take on “De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da,” and today a second preview track has emerged.
Hatfield’s second Police single is “Next To You,” the first song from their first album, Outlandos d’Amour. (“Next To You” is suddenly getting a lot of attention from ’90s alt-rock heroes; Supergrass also covered it this month.) Hatfield tells Billboard she abandoned “an awful ’80s metal ballad” version of the song in favor of the slow-downed version that became the final product:
Their recording of it is so perfect in its imperfection. It’s unpolished and raw. That whole album sounds like three guys bashing out a song in a room together. So I didn’t even want to attempt to do a rocking version of it like that. I don’t want it to be compared to the original. There’s no way I could come close. So I just went in a completely different direction and slowed down to half time.
Hear her take on “Next To You” below.
Juliana Hatfield Sings The Police is out 11/15 on American Laundromat.