Delightfully retro, Pearl Charles latest collection, Magic Mirror (January 2021), is a nod back to 70′s bubbly pop music. In a time when pop can sound,  and be, so manufactured that it ends up soulless, Charles rewinds to simpler, less produced, musical times. Remember what music was like when AM radio wasn’t full of talk idiots, but pop gems?  Well, you might not be old enough to remember that, but I certainly do, and Only For Tonight (seen/heard here) samples that ethos perfectly!

Magic Mirror’s other tracks available as of this writing, What I Need, Imposter, and Take Your Time, explore different avenues of the same time period. What I Need is flavored with slide guitar, giving it just a hint of countrified pop, while Imposter’s sax-infused musical landscape is more pop ballad, even though the lyrical content is far more serious than the music implies.  Essentially, Pearl Charles is an artist who is not confined to a single genre or style, which makes her music interesting and accessible to anyone.

Now Vodka has to spend just a little bit of time on the negatives. Pearl Charles is not a new artist. She’s been making music under her own name since at least 2012. She started out with The Driftwood Singers and The Blank Tapes. She’s got some history in the back catalog as well as in her personal catalog.  That said, there is no one-stop-shop for information on Pearl Charles. No website, no biography, no mention of the band that backs her, not even on her Facebook page, where the “About” section might as well be empty. In an era where music marketing matters even more than it ever used to, having a presence that is eternally linked together and has great information about you or your band, is not just a luxury, but a necessity. Not every band will have a website. OK, I get that. Then at minimum, flesh out your Facebook about section. 

The information available on Pearl Charles can be found on her Facebook and Twitter pages. You can (and should) pick up her music on her bandcamp.com site. Magic Mirror is available now in Digital, Vinyl, and CD formats.

Pick up some great retro sounds from an artist who makes them modern and timely, by picking up some Pearl Charles music now!

Note: With Covid-19 still around, probably to be with us for some time, artists like Pearl Charles and many others need your purchases to keep their heads above water. If your situation allows it, consider purchasing more in these tough times. –Vodka