Some of Hello's songs are upbeat and playful, while others indicate Prettyman may still be healing from her emotional wounds. On the electric-piano-tinged "Echo," she sings, "Baby, I don't want to see your face 'round here no more." On "California Girl," a bluesy ballad that is one of the highlights of the album, she vows "I'm never gonna fall for that old trick again." (San Diego Union-Tribune)
"Yeahhh . . . that's funny 'cause I actually had to write this writer an e-mail after this came out. It was actually the first time I'd ever done something like that, because it said I was bent outta shape about my ex-boyfriend [singer Jason Mraz] and it mentioned him about four times and it just really drove me nuts, and I feel like the writer did it because it's home, it's San Diego, and it was the first time I felt the presence of the press using info that was out there from the past that was kinda sketchy to add to the story a little more. In general, this record is not about a breakup, really — for me, the record represents me and my personality and the different colors that I show.
"I mean, I'm fine to talk about being in a relationship, but I feel like it's irrelevant who it's with, because either way, if it was with someone well-known or not well-known, it wouldn't matter, and I've been in several relationships since that relationship, so I kinda feel like, 'Hey, wait, you're just singling the one dude out, what about the other guys? They have feelings, too!' And for anyone writing a review of my record to say, 'Oh, it's just a breakup record' and 'She's angry,' that's just a cop out.
"Like, really? You probably didn't listen to the record then. I feel that as an artist, I just worked way too hard and put way too much soul and honesty into my music to have someone make assumptions about it based on what they've read. I feel like I deserve a little better. I don't want people to just write it off as 'a breakup album.'"
There are a few songs that scream "radio single," and that's simply for the fact that they do conform to what we're hearing with a lot of other singer-songwriters in the music world. Prettyman is at her best when she doesn't follow the rules, and strips the production down. At times, you'll hear just percussion and at other moments, only an extremely simple acoustic line, but it's in those moments when the core song comes through and Hello feels the most genuine. (Ultimate-Guitar.com)
"Wow. Yeah, I've never been a fan of slick production. I was actually really worried about using 'Madly Madly' as a single. You know, you have a label pushing you saying, 'This is the song that'll do the best at radio; this is a hit,' and as an artist, I'm sorta like, I'd rather just put out the opposite of what everybody else thinks works, because that'd make it stand out more. People would hear you on the radio or something and be like, 'Wow, this doesn't sound like everything else.'"
