Having been quite taken with Poppy Fardell's set in support of Vic Allen at the Green Note on Saturday, it only seemed right to check out the initial stand out song of the set "Hayley". At the time it was intriguing and engaging, as you tried to fathom out what was going on with this person who "left no footprints on the ground".
The answers if they are to be found lie in this debut, Tim Prottey-Jones produced single. With Tim at the helm you are guaranteed a somewhat superior production and from the very off that is evident, with a mood setting electric guitar and a pulsing drum beat. Poppy's vocals in many ways only add to the mystery as various little details are revealed about the eponymous heroine of the song and the world she inhabits, that she was "small and shy until she questioned why?" and that she lives in a world of "flames and hunting" where "one by one they were forced to fight". She then becomes a mythological Robin Hood style figure around who her own folk lore builds
"She's wanted and can never be found, I heard she burnt her own house to the ground, and you can listen but she doesn't make a sound, you can look but she leaves no footprints on the ground".
With the name extended out over may syllables and notes, "Hayley" becomes ever more enigmatic each time Poppy sings her name. If you listen to this single once, i'm sure you'll need to play it another 5 times to even get an inkling of all that occurs in its four minutes - and if you come out none the wiser never mind - it's a great single and it will have been time well spent.