[Image from facebook.com]
“And someday the walls of this town are gonna cave in. And oh, this explosion inside you is gonna burst through your skin.”Singer-songwriter Hayley Reardon already has a bright future ahead of her. After winning Boston’s annual Folk Festival Songwriting contest at 12, she went on to release her first EP, Beautiful Simplicity in 2009, and followed up with 2010′s Hope You’re Smiling, which featured the track “Stand Together”, a song written about Reardon’s experience with bullying in middle school. Now 15, Reardon is currently in preparation to release her debut album, Where the Artists Go through Kingswood Records. With a sound reminiscent of fellow up-and-comer Cady Groves with a little Taylor Swift and Colbie Caillat, Reardon’s debut album is an impressive debut. The album, which has a indie-folk feel to it, sounds as if it’s coming from someone twice her age who has been in the business for several years, rather than a teenager. Where the Artists Go is an album that is lyric driven, and is sure to be a hit among indie music lovers.
The title track, “Where the Artists Go”, is sure to speak to listeners everywhere. Says Reardon, “’Where the Artists Go’ is about looking for the artist in everyone.” The song speaks of the passion that burns within artists, and how inspiration can burst through and create something beautiful. Hayley Reardon’s own passion definitely shines through in this album, with songs like “Scribbles” and “Music”.
Reardon tackles the issues of people changing and learning to grow up in “Change”, wanting to explore the world in “Seattle”, and channels her inner Taylor Swift in “Like He Knows the Red Sox”, where she teases a former love interest who asked her to write a song with, “I finally wrote you a song. I hope it’s stuck in your head all night long.” She slows it down with “Addicted to Conviction”, featuring Hawaii’an slam poet Sterling Higa, where she discusses love, singing “Someday I’m gonna marry a boy like you.”
Album art for “Where the Artists Go”
[image from prlog.org]
Standout songs on this album are hard to choose, but my personal favorites were: “Only Pretending”, “Change”, “Addicted to Conviction”, and of course, “Where the Artists Go”.
Reardon is set to tour the Northeast US to various summer camps and at special events for National Bullying Prevention Month, as she is a National Peer Spokesperson for PACER. She is currently participating in a five-week program at Berklee College of Music in Boston.
To learn more about Reardon, her music, and other projects she may have, visit her at Facebook, follow her at @hayleyreardon, or visit Hayley at her official website.
The title track, “Where the Artists Go” is currently available for download here.
