On MEGAPEARL, Reggie Pearl revels in their own perspective. Over jazzy retro-style arrangements complete with strings and horns, she regales us with tales of love, loss, and most of all, seeing the bigger picture.*
It’s an evolution from 2023’s Twilight Zone, a record about fresh (and sometimes disquieting) self-discovery in the midst of deep hurt. In Twilight, we hear a lot about other characters; Reggie is learning things about themself, yes, but through the lens of unpacking the trauma and pain of those around her. Even when referring to herself, it’ll be in the third person, with a dissociative tone that implies there are still some things they have yet to get comfortable with. Musically, though well written, I always felt there was a little bit of life missing from the recorded versions compared to the starburst that Reggie was live. I was lucky enough to be introduced to them as the opener to my third Isaac Dunbar concert (good music loves good music), where the blue spotlights silhouetted her against the red of the room as if from another planet. They captured both my friend and I in the raw power of their voice, balanced by the softness of their music. It was a magical experience, but I never found her prior recorded releases to quite live up to it.
That changed with the release of “BIKINI BOTTOMS” this July. I talked about it in that month’s Roundup, writing that it was the first release of Reggie Pearl’s that felt just as strong on recording as it would live. The arrangement and mix of the song feel like the first true entrance to Reggie’s auditory universe, a world lush with diverse timbres and unique instrumentation, driven by equally unique influences. “[The] Fallout soundtrack, Jorge Ben Jor Força Bruta, Judy Garland Judy At Carnegie Hall, Nina Simone, Stina Nordenstam, there's this one James Brown song …"People Get Up And Drive Your Funky Soul" that me and Gabriel streamed so much on tour,” Reggie tells me over email. “BbyMutha, Ronald Langestraat, Ari Lennox, and Dean Blunt — I also really love obscure music as well, old soul, jazz, and folk music!” It sounds impossible, but each one surfaces in its own way in Reggie’s sound. The retro sound comes across clearly in the presence of a full band (which perhaps would have been a wild statement 20 years ago). The strongest genre pull is clearly in her jazz-vocalist background. But the modern influences appear too, in a way that makes their work comparable to that of Laufey or Hiatus Kaiyote: an artist who is helping to bring the muse of jazz into the next generation.
It’s also a lot more upbeat than Twilight Zone, with songs like “STARS AND ANTICS” and “STUDENT HATES THE TEACHER” taking on a Latin groove made for dancing. “I want to sing and dance away the pain and heartbreak of Twilight Zone,” as Reggie puts it. “Move that energy around. A big bang of my self-expression and musical universe!” With the lightheartedness of dancing comes the lightheartedness of other things. “Whimsy” and “romantic” are two words Reggie uses to describe the EP, which are both fitting descriptions. When listening to music, I try to take Lorde’s advice and experience how it feels when moving through the world. The best memory I got from applying that idea to this project was when walking down the street to get lunch one day with “STARS AND ANTICS” in my headphones. I felt like the main character of a romcom post-first date: the sun shone just a little bit brighter, I wanted to dance my way down the sidewalk, and everyone I passed felt like a new opportunity to smile. I could almost see doodles in the air to the tune of Reggie’s scatting, sparkling with the pinks and purples of new love.
There are also some moments of deeper emotion, best portrayed in the opening track, “BIKINI BOTTOMS,” and the closer, “THE PENGUIN.” The former tells of taking a lover down with you at the collapse of your relationship, while the latter is a song about jealousy named after the 1992 Batman Returns character played by Danny Devito. Both deal with a very literal “rock bottom,” which makes for a good full-circle moment to close out the EP. “FALLOUT” also deals with the after-effects of an unhealthy relationship, examining it with a more critical (but still loving) retrospective eye. Though instrumentally and lyrically complex at times, I can report from experience that one strength of MEGAPEARL is its versatility–I can spend hours analyzing it, but I can also throw it on to dance around to in the kitchen. Even when dealing with heavier subjects, Reggie never makes the music feel heavy–the lyrics just provide a ground for its playfulness to stand on. “Like an alien spaceship that lands on planet Earth,” Reggie says.
“THE PENGUIN” happens to also be my favorite song from the project. The titular character is a supervillain cast out by his parents at birth (and adopted by penguins) who’s determined to get revenge for his treatment, whether through adoration or violence. “The song is about jealousy and I feel like that character is the physical manifestation of what jealousy feels like,” Reggie explained. It builds in a fittingly cinematic way, beginning with only their voice over a guitar. By the end of the first verse, strings, horns, bass, and drums have also come in, building to a beautiful instrumental arrangement that moves with just as much character as the vocals. She asks you to meet her “Where the rocks fall,” a reference to The Penguin’s tragic ending. But just as you think you know where it’s going, the song falls apart–and reassembles itself into a magnificent instrumental outro. The best part is, as Reggie puts it, “The most Batman-ass trumpet line.” It’s a strong closer to an EP about what to do with your own feelings, ending on just enough of an unresolved chord to leave the ear open and curious as to what could come next.
Reggie Pearl is undeniably on the cusp of something, and I hope for her sake that the world will soon come to see it as much as I do. As a critic, I listen to enough music that it becomes rare to find something I truly haven’t heard before. When I do–like when I came across Omar Apollo, Baby Queen, or most notably, Chappell Roan, years before they hit mainstream success–I almost always get the privilege of watching their career rise immensely over time. It’s old music industry advice come to life: if you make good music, your audience will always find you. In that sense, Reggie Pearl feels like a young bud just beginning to blossom… but who is soon to become a rose. MEGAPEARL is a promise of the beginning of a long and great music career.
*Reggie Pearl uses she/they pronouns, so this review alternates between the two.
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