Pearla - “With”

SXSW 2023 - OEB Score: 8; Popularity Index: 2

Pairs Well With…Aldous Harding, Lucius, Jessica Lea Mayfield

It’s been four years since Pearla released her debut EP Quilting & Other Activities and a full-length is finally on this way from the alt-country-based artist. Oh Glistening Onion, The Nighttime Is Coming arrives this Friday and is already previewed by six singles that expand on her core sound with psych-rock, folk, and patient soundscapes throughout. Nostalgic melodies cross with Pearla’s raw performance and the result is open and often purely beautiful. There’s an echoing quality that smartly gives some distance from the heartbreak that seems to resonate on Oh Glistening Onion, what is shaping up to be terrific and subtly ambitious effort that could be a wider introduction for this excelling performer. (Kevin McStravick)

2020 Review: Dreamy folk pop tends to be a pretty tight box, so it’s notable how much range Pearla is able to cover over her rich, debut EP Quilting & Other Activities. Alt country ballad “Quilting” lies tastefully with “Daydream”,  an airy indie pop track that builds with lush soundscapes interceding throughout. “Forgive Yourself” puts Pearl’s textured, alto vocal out front aided by experimental sound layers by song’s end and “Somewhere” even adds some subtle industrial percussion to a bouncy sung melody. All of these twists give Quilting & Other Activities life.