Hello Kelly

Ontario rockers Hello Kelly are touring all the time; just check their Myspace and you’ll see these guys love being on the road more than a trucker loves their rest stop. Having seen the band live in a number of settings (at a small town pig roast and at a rock music festival), I can safely say their headbands and high-energy rock appeal come through on hellokelly their debut LP.

Hello Kelly have been compared to Relient K and Hawk Nelson - rightfully so - because of their pop punk style and youth focus. However, the band have a sound and story all their own. The band calls the audience “Kelly” and say they (the band) “exists to challenge Kelly to define their own beliefs.” Powerful stuff for pop rock. What’s more is frontman Francois Goudreault Jr. has a speech handicap, he stutters, and Goudreault has put it to good use in a creative way on the opener “10 Good Reasons”, with excellent pop rock style. The song works as a testament to what the band is all about, being honest with their fans about the things they deal with as broken human beings and inspiring people to keep going on despite difficulty and be all that God wants them to be.

A few other highlights worth mentioning on the album are “Radio Edit Interlude”, it grasps the edge with sonic synth well. “No Time for Tears” has a cool intro that sounds like a video game and then gets serious about broken relationships, the narrative is captivating and shows the strength of the band lyrically. If you’re looking for an inspiring Canadian band with substance behind their energetic pop punk sound, give these guys a listen. - Soulshine.ca

There's no other way around it. For emo-charged bands to be effective, its frontmen simply must wear their hearts on their sleeve. For Hello Kelly's Francois Goudreault, that was never an easy prospect. Afflicted with a strong stutter for as long as he can remember, Goudreault has had to make the most of the situation and press forward. Judging from the vocal assuredness on his band's self-titled debut, he could've fooled us.

That's not the only way this Canadian foursome has prevailed. In four short years, Hello Kelly has sold more than 15,000 copies of two introductory EPs, logged countless miles on the road, and shared the bill with the likes of Hawk Nelson, Thousand Foot Krutch, and Starfield. Unlike their compatriots, though, Hello Kelly doesn't just settle for the road most traveled, offering instead their own unique spin on emo pop/rock.

The "emo" tag may tempt some to lump the group with other whiners du jour, but Hello Kelly is a little more accomplished than that, sporting a shimmering, incredibly melodic pop/rock sound, punctuated by Goudreault's clean emo wail, his band mates' polished power-pop dynamics, and scattered sonic elements throughout that are out of the norm for less conventional youth-rock advocates. It only helps that the choruses are insurmountably huge; so sugary, almost every one of them could be destined for Top 40 glory.

This immediacy wouldn't mean much were it not for Hello Kelly's strong sense of meaningful, faith-fueled lyricism. Whether it's a song about the aftermath of divorce ("No Time for Tears"), or teenaged relationships ("My Girlfriend"), the group tackles their subject matters with a straight face, while maintaining a steady pulse for their style of choice.

In fact, the band is so far removed from cliche;, they're able to poke fun at vacuous, radio-geared compositions in the insanely funny "Radio Edit Interlude," which comes and goes before you can say "radio hit." All things considered, Hello Kelly amounts to a praiseworthy debut, one with enough brains and brawn to render it a better-than-most first outing. - theFish.com

Packed with punk-tinged pop and some of the best songwriting talent in recent memory …

From the very first chords, Hello Kelly is clearly something different in pop-rock music. Not in terms of sound——but in overall confidence and melodic prowess without trying too hard to be smart or accessible.

Lead singer Francois Goudreault cleverly references his stuttering problem in the first track, yet at the same time, it’s just a fun vocalization for the uninitiated. From there, the band jumps into a catchy, well-constructed chorus.

This interplay of writing intelligent lyrics to catchy, distinct melodies—all the while keeping it so tautly composed that only the songs themselves remain memorable—is a tall order, and thus the album is quite an accomplishment. With touches like the synth squiggles on “10 Good Reasons” and the acoustic guitar on “Simple Love Song,” all accompanied by Goudreault’s refreshingly unassuming voice, these songs are sure to pack a punch on radio.

Hello Kelly’s sound is fully formed and its chosen field of pop-punk influenced rock has clearly been conquered; hopefully this means very impressive things from them in the future. - CMCentral.com