Hayley Reardon - “Good News”
Photo by Jörg Stanzick
From Massachusetts, critically acclaimed singer-songwriter and storyteller Hayley Reardon returns to us with “Good News,” a song that traverses falling in love while simultaneously falling apart.
It is no secret that we are drawn toward the raw and profound intimacy of folk music, so when we discovered that Reardon recorded “Good News” in one take, we could not wait to press play. After some brief, ambient tones, the track begins with a tenderly finger-plucked acoustic guitar, wonderfully setting the vibe for this stripped-back tale.
The production lives and breathes with analog character, as though Reardon and the band are performing the tune right in front of you. This is generally the case with her music and as her soft, breathy and honest vocal performance saturates the arrangement, we are confident that you will be able to lose yourself within her delicate delivery.
As the track progresses, additional elements arrive to populate the soundscape, including the soft and gloriously ethereal cries from a pedal steel. A slow-paced rhythm section imbues the production with a creamy, vintage pulse, providing a solid foundation on which to build the crescendo.
Lyrically, “Good News” comes across as something deeply personal, which allows listeners to feel as though Reardon trusts them enough to learn her secrets. And when you couple this with the already intimate nature of the track, it makes for one hell of a listening experience.
“Good News” is the third release from Reardon’s forthcoming collection of tunes entitled Part Way Open. We will likely have more on that later, considering we find it extremely difficult to resist her resplendent offerings to the world of folk music.