I’ve praised Haley Joelle in the past for her brutally raw unfiltered style of songwriting. She’s never pulled any punches when it comes to crafting stories that we find ourselves in, relating to her genuine lyrics about yearning for love and wanting to be someones emergency contact or a loving ode to her own mother that will have you reaching for tissues. Even within her honey-drizzled vocal you can hear a subtle cry that evokes a wave of powerful emotion that comes crashing down upon you, leaving you reeling as a result and wetting your eyes in the process. However, whilst her two previous tracks garnered a massive reaction from her cult like fanbase, it was one she released a teaser of on TikTok that people kept escaping into for solitude and, for those fans today, she’s finally unveiled it.
Goodwill isn’t a typical break up anthem, whilst most tracks regarding the end of a loving relationship focus on the immediate aftermath, she instead focuses on the year long side effects. The world is going 100 miles a minute and you’re trying to move on with it but still find yourself struggling with the past, wanting to heal but feeling like you need to keep going with everyone else. With the emotional weight that is equivalent to the Titanic movie, Goodwill goes from a tender opening pulling back the curtain on her subconscious reiterating her pain, to a halcyon finale that with an angelic choir of vocals all raising Joelle up to the clouds, helping her recover and being the support she needs. Her music needs a cry warning because Haley Joelle always has me reaching for the tissues.
“I wrote “Goodwill” when I had just moved to LA after living in Norway for a year. Everything in my life was moving forward, but I was still trying to move on from my first love. I got rid of all the evidence of us, but the last step was taking the time I needed to heal. It was only when I posted the song on TikTok in late 2020 that I realised how many people resonated with it. It’s still the song I get the most messages about, so I’m excited to finally give my fans what they’ve been asking for.”