If It's Too Loud...

Photo by Tonje Thilesen Pearla is just one of those artists that is hard to define. The Brooklyn based artist (real name Nicole Rodriguez) has released a new single, "Unglow The," that might be closest to modern folk or singer/songwriter music, but neither of those sound quite right. It's not that Pearla is making music that's a complete oddball or outlier material. "Unglow The" has a fairly mainstream sound, but it skirts the edges of the mainstream just enough to make it hard to define. If this was the 90's we could jjst slap the "alternative" label on it and be done, but you're just going to have to check this one out for yourself. Pearla says of the new song: "'Unglow The' is about mortality, and the absurdity of life on Earth. I wrote it after one of my old friends passed away and I was finding it so impossible to grasp. No matter how many times I experience death, it never feels 'real.' I feel a similar way when I...

Photo by Tonje Thilesen The latest single from Pearla comes quite close to being a mainstream singer/songwriter track. It nearly fits neatly into the Adult Contemporary genre, except it's just such an odd song that it truly doesn't fit into any genre neatly. "The Place With No Weather" might be folk adjacent, but the song has this interesting spaced out vibe with fuzzy guitars. And then there are the odd vocal effects that keep the song both ethereal and futuristic. The best comparisons I can make with "The Place With No Weather" is that it's an interesting combination of David Bowie and Marissa Nadler. Nicole Rodriguez (aka Pearla) says of her new single: “I was thinking about outer space, and I was imagining all of the different possible ways for life to take form.  I was feeling really stuck in my body, and sensitive to my surroundings. I wondered what it would be like to be free from that, from all earthly limitations, to feel your soul stretch out a...