(photo by Shervin Lainez)
Well this has been a long time coming - since being introduced to Pearl and the Beard (after an irrationally long time of putting them off) in the summer of 2013 at The Wild Honey Pie's Welcome Campers, I've been fiending for the new Pearl and the Beard record. Fans of theirs had the opportunity to pre-order the record - titled Beast, and were given the gift of a stream/download while the band got all their ducks in a row with all the particulars of the new record. But for me, that wasn't good enough. Pearl and the Beard, from the moment their music crackled on my skin like static electricity, were a sharing band. "Have you heard of 'Pearl and the Beard?" I would ask my similar musically inclined friends, casual acquaintances, strangers I had just met at parties. It was getting ridiculous but such is the strength of their new songs and I wanted everyone to hear them.
"You", the first taste of Beast, is a perfect introduction to the band for the uninitiated and a lovely roaring return for those fans waiting, patiently, for the band's follow up to 2011's Killing Your Darlings. It's a bliss-inducing burst of pop filled to the brim with insistent fervor. "Can you hear me? Got a megaphone on my forever beating heart/Come on get it through your skull that I want you and all of your flaws" - Jocelyn Mackenzie roars right out the gate. "You" may invoke the feelings of all-consuming love but Mackenzie establishes first and foremost that it's a love that true; not that sort of easy infatuation where you're completely blind to the hidden depths of a person. The love in "You" in bold but understanding and Pearl and the Beard ride that wave pretty agilely keeping up with the sheer insistence of the zealous lyrics with rapid pacing and grand swelling choruses. "You" is the perfect preview of Beast because it's bound to stay in your ears until the trio see fit to let their next track free and luckily for both them and us - it's a damn good to keep us company.
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