2003 679 Records
Digißak and CD in fine condition
"Young female singer-songwriters are in the ascendant, with the likes of Michelle Branch and Vanessa Carlton acting as Joni Mitchells of the post-Tweenies generation. Hayley Willis, however, is a much more grown-up proposition. In a voice worn down by experience, she marries X-rated memories with contemporary soul and old-fashioned country to create bite-size pieces of heartache. Paper and Stone, first released on her debut EP last year, is a haunting take on the traditional gospel spiritual, an intoxicating chant burning against a stripped-down groove. Violin and harmonica moan as Willis fluctuates between matriarch and needy child. "I let you fuck with my head, I can't breathe without you," she sings with tender bitterness in the gorgeous piano ballad November. And in The Ballad of Sadie Lee we witness the slow drip of loneliness as it turns to obsession." (The Guardian)
