Pearly, "Silver of the Mirror"
The only album I’ve managed to get into so far this year is “Silver of the Mirror”, by Pearly. There were a couple of months there where I just wasn’t listening to much, and I wasn’t going to shows, and I don’t really know what happened. So don’t take that as a judgement on the overall quality of the year, it’s intended to say that the album managed to pierce through whatever fog I was wandering through for the first quarter of the year.
It’s an album I mostly want to talk about in terms of what else it reminds me of, but that doesn’t seem fair. Pearly are a duo, there’s guitar, drums, female vocals, and some electronic bits throughout, but there’s only so much room for complexity given the constraints. It’s more about the feel, which shifts around but overall feels introverted. Nights alone, daydreams, working out some aggression: someone in their head.
“Deep Love”, the album opener, verges on darkwave, synth at a slow tempo with some aching vocals, and then an electric guitar cuts in a changes the feel entirely to something like Garbage. But then it keeps going! The last two minutes go back to something more synth-based, but now the backing is submerged, like it’s playing one room over. Then some pretty acoustic guitar starts to cut through and…it’s the next song!
“2B” sounds like a Machina-era happy Smashing Pumpkins song. (Specifically it reminds me of “Try, Try, Try”, but I find that one a bit treacly.) Gentle guitar strumming, harmonizing in the choruses, but still some angst running through the proceedings. It’s nothing like the first song. And then the next song is one of these vaguely bluesy punk songs that seem to be a thing now? Until it becomes a slab of stoner rock? I like it, the guitars are fuzzy, the kick drum is getting worked out, there’s a catchy little provocation repeated throughout (“strap in, strap on”), it’s great, but there’s no indication the band that made the first two songs also has this one in them.
I won’t continue with a play-by-play, but I’ll mention that you also get a trip-hop track in “Blues Riff”, shoegaze-on-the-verge-of-ambient in “Let’s Play”, a hard rock stomper in “Silver Behind the Mirror”, and a lost Ladytron track with “Dreams Of”. There’s some self-indulgence here and there, but man, I admire the ambition.
As an aside, here’s a short playlist I made to help me keep some things straight:
Track listing:
“Tears”, Knifeplay, Pearlty
“2B”, Pearly, Silver Behind the Mirror
“Call For Help”, Pearly Drops, Call For Help
“Pearly-Dewdrops’ Drops - 7" Version”, Cocteau Twins, The Pink Opaque
weirdly Pearl Jam never really crossed my mind when contemplating this tangle