Pretty Heart

Austin, Texas native Parker McCollum first came to Lone Star prominence as a live act on the club circuit. This tormented heartbreak song finds him taking the blame for a breakup. It was released as his first single after signing with Universal Music Group on August 30, 2019.

McCollum birthed the song in 2014 when he was playing music at his brother's house. He came up with a couple of lines: What does that say about me That I could love somebody like you McCollum was thrilled with the lyric, so he posted a clip on Instagram of him singing the words. He came across the clip again four years later, shortly before a co-writing session with songwriter Randy Montana. After changing the line to "What does that say about me. I could do you like I did," they developed the rest of the song by creating a character who beats himself up for the way he treated his girl. "Sometimes in other genres it's not that way where the guy's kind of down on himself," noted Montana to Billboard. "And that's what I love so much about the song is that I feel like it's a real thing. It's a guy kind of being vulnerable, and that's why I love Parker and where he comes from writing-wise. He's cool with going there."

The chorus ends with McCollum stretching the word "heart" out across an 11-note journey until it ends on the hard "rt" sound. "I'm thinking to myself, 'No way,'" recalled McCollum, remembering the time he first unwound the 11-note hook. "I mean, that's just goofy." But for Montana, it's a quirky moment that works. "'Heart' is not the word where you kind of do the move," he said, "but he's just a little left of center, and it really works for his voice and, I think, for his style."