Time to say Hello to Kelly
Posted June 13, 2008
By Nathan,
Pretty much under the radar thus far, Hello Kelly, five Canadian guys, finished with an abundance of EP’s to bring fans a full length album (thirteen songs). Sharing the stage with bands like Thousand Foot Krutch, Superchick and Hawk Nelson have certainly helped the bands popularity, but a solid album release is a lot more convincing.
The pop/punk/emo rock is the wide genre that Hello Kelly goes into, but on the first track, “ten good reasons”, the upbeat music is clearly punk. “Bring it broken” is a pop/punk tune also with a good chorus, but “disappearing” is a light rock tune with a more punk bridge; it also adds quick balance to the CD. The intro from “favorite arcade” sounds like it came from Donkey Kong, but the song is really edgy rock song leaving the punk sound to come in with hints. The emo rock shows up in “fall over me” which is solid but it lacks the smoothness of earlier songs, however the acoustic “simple love song”, fails because of the simplicity, Francois Goudreault’s surprising weak vocals combined with too much base.
The quick and humorous “radio edit interlude”, sounds like a piece Relient K would do while sounding like eleventyseven; the result is just fun. “The right thing” is a gritty, but solid emo rock song and “no time for tears” is a straightforward light rock song. The electric guitar introduction is good in “wait for dreams” is great and among the tune changes that are made in the light rock song the ending bit in the chorus makes it all worth it. The punk really comes out in “paper bag princess” which is a punk rock song with an odd fast paced hard ending. Along the lines of the pop punk is “my girl friend” a fast paced punk song with a great flow, such songs put Hello Kelly among the leaders in Christian punk. Starting with only light rock sound on “thinking positive”, the last song ends with a more pop reverberation.
Hello Kelly’s lyrics are as you might expect for a punk rock band, a little shallow, but they do give it a good effort. While “No time for tears” is an honest song about someone struggling with divorce and, “simple love song” and “disappearing” are a display of Hell Kelly’s cheesy writing. While “my girl friend” is an interesting take on teenaged relationships, it’s very juvenile, which is who it was geared for. “Ten good reasons” seems like a blunder because it’s about the singer wanting God to reveal his love for him (’10 good reasons/I deserve forgiveness every night’) because as Christians we realize that there is no way we can deserve forgiveness.
Among the meaningless and the obviously basic faith fueled track there is complexity when it comes to “favorite arcade” (‘How can I hate you when you buy me flowers? /how can I trust you when they always die?’). Such lyrics project a projects a promising future for Hello Kelly, and with songs like “10 good reasons”, “favorite arcade” and “my girl friend” the musical quality looks like it could very well get better than it already is. Not satisfied with Hawk Nelson’s new disc, then it’s time to say Hello to Kelly.
View All Music And Book Reviews By Nathan | View Nathan's Profile
|
