West coast Pearl
Rising star’s new album is a perfect tonic to magic away the blues
PEARL CHARLES: Magic Mirror (Kanine)
Verdict: Feel-good Californian pop ★★★★I WHY DON’T WE: The Good Times And The Bad Ones (Atlantic)
Verdict: Catchy boy-band harmonies ★★★II PASSENGER: Songs For The Drunk And Broken Hearted (Cooking Vinyl) Verdict: Pithy character studies ★★★II
The start of a new year is traditionally the time to pinpoint pop’s up-and-coming names. And despite a pandemic that has wreaked havoc with the touring circuit and club scene, fresh voices are still making themselves heard, with live streams and new albums.
One rising star to watch is Los Angeles singer- songwriter Pearl Charles, whose second album, Magic Mirror, is a feelgood stroll through some classic American styles, including country-soul, 1960s pop and 1970s rock. Out today on independent label Kanine, it’s a record to banish the blues.
Charles, 29, isn’t a complete newcomer. The former music student cut her teeth with LA country duo The Driftwood Singers and drummed with garage-rock band The Blank Tapes before turning solo in 2012. She has since toured with Father John Misty and Best Coast, anchoring her music firmly in American indie rock.
Magic Mirror is more mainstream, despite a penchant for bittersweet, inward-looking lyrics. It shifts the dial away from the indie underground towards smoother West Coast sounds.
Opening track Only For Tonight is misleading, musically at least. Like Arcade Fire’s everything Now, it’s an homage to Abba’s Dancing Queen, suggesting we might be in for an album of glitter-clad disco tunes. But what follows is generally softer and more introspective.
Magic Mirror charts her progress ess from adolescence to adulthood. She questions uestions her own artistic credentials on n Imposter, and tackles the fear of f moving on from the dying g embers of an old relationship on n What I Need.
The title track, an elton-esque e piano ballad, finds her wondering g whether she’s simply becoming g too self-absorbed. She may have a point — but as a dyed-in-the-wool l Californian singer- songwriter, a certain amount of soul-searching g comes with the job description.
ASThe album approaches s the finale, the mood d changes. Sweet Sunshine e Wine, spiced with h harpsichord and honky- tonk k piano, tells of a carefree summer r romance. even lockdown love e comes at a price, though, and the album ends on a reflective note rather than a fairytale one.
‘We’re closer to the edge right now than we’ve ever been,’ she sings on As Long As You’re Mine, a ballad inspired by blues musician Bonnie raitt. ‘Summer fun feels f l a l long way away right i ht now,’ ’ says Pearl. ‘But we can still dream.’ On Magic Mirror, she’s doing just that.
WheN they emerged five years ago, all chiselled jawlines and just-so haircuts, American quintet Why Don’t We seemed like a throwback th b kt to th the b boy b bands d of f a bygone era.
Their shiny bubblegum pop owed more to NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys than it did to later outfits such as One Direction and South Korea’s BTS. The LAbased group’s second album comes co with typically mindboggling bo social media statistics — three th billion global streams to date; da ten million followers online — suggesting that the UK may be about ab to fall under their spell. They Th can certainly sing (some of the th harmonies here are sublime) but bu it’s also easy to spot the growing inm pains as they strive to show a more adult side.
The T band, aged between 19 and 22, 22 co-produced The Good Times And The Bad Ones and had a hand in the writing. Daniel Seavey, 21, and Corbyn Besson, 22, contribute keyboards, guitar and bass. There’s an attempt to broaden
WDW’s artistic palate, even if their new, rockier influences often feel bolted on. Like any good pop album, it’s front-loaded with its catchiest songs. Fallin’ (Adrenaline) samples its thunderous drum roll from Kanye West’s Black Skinhead, and Slow Down leans heavily on the Smashing Pumpkins single 1979. Amid the tales of youthful crushes, there’s an attempt to tackle something deeper on Be Myself, an excellent song that addresses mental health with sensitivity. And the ballad Stay ends the album with a falsetto flourish. SINGer-SONGWrITer Mike rosenberg — aka Passenger — was due to release his new album last May. Postponed because of the pandemic, it has now been revamped, with tracks added to reflect a changed world. The former busker from Brighton, best known for his 2012 hit Let her Go, penned some material in the aftermath of a break-up, but his strongest songs are his vivid character sketches. his thoughtful lyrics are set to a folk-rock backing. Sword From The Stone, written in quarantine for an ex- girlfriend, is hackneyed, but remember To Forget ( about an irritating barfly) and Suzanne (an older woman reflecting on better days) are well observed. holding out hope for the future, London In The Spring is a celebration of life’s simple pleasures.