Artist
HelloGoodbye
Why we feature this artist A bright electronic crush, then a more expansive songbook Hellogoodbye first became widely familiar through the heavily treated vocal and electronic pulse of Here (In Your Arms). It was an instantly identifiable sound, but Forrest Kl…
- From
- United States
- Sound
- Indie pop, power pop, pop punk, emo pop
- Active
- 2001–present
Start with the music
Tracks to explore
The artist, in context
The story of HelloGoodbye
Why we feature this artist
A bright electronic crush, then a more expansive songbook
Hellogoodbye first became widely familiar through the heavily treated vocal and electronic pulse of Here (In Your Arms). It was an instantly identifiable sound, but Forrest Kline's project soon proved less fixed than that single suggested. The records that followed moved toward fuller band playing, vintage pop colour and increasingly elaborate arrangements.
The first full album
The California group grew around Kline's songwriting and home-recording instincts. Zombies! Aliens! Vampires! Dinosaurs!, released in 2006, made a lively first full-length statement, with All of Your Love and Here (In Your Arms) among its central songs. The electronic textures could be deliberately conspicuous, giving romantic excitement a slightly artificial, brightly lit surface.
Here (In Your Arms) depends on the contrast between that surface and a very simple emotional situation. The vocal processing changes the texture without making the feeling remote. The record also belonged to a musical environment in which bands could move naturally between pop-punk audiences, independent songwriting and laptop production, with no need to choose only one of those communities.
Would It Kill You? and the third album
Would It Kill You? appeared in 2010, bringing more organic instrumentation and a different sense of space. When We First Met and other songs put melody and ensemble detail nearer the foreground. The change made it clearer that the project was built around a writer with a strong interest in pop structure, rather than around one particular electronic effect.
Everything Is Debatable followed in 2013, with Joe Chiccarelli working alongside Kline on the production. The title song's rhythm and layered arrangement gave the music another route toward the dancefloor. Across the albums, the most interesting continuity is Kline's ability to make a carefully assembled recording feel animated and slightly restless, as though the small details are all trying to move the song forward at once.
Essential releases
Zombies! Aliens! Vampires! Dinosaurs!
Here (In Your Arms) and All of Your Love introduce the project's exuberant early electronic-pop sound.
Would It Kill You?
Fuller band textures and songs such as When We First Met bring the melodic writing into a different light.
Everything Is Debatable
Kline and Joe Chiccarelli build a more layered, rhythmically active third album.