Pearl Charles “Desert Queen”

Pearl Charles is a singer-songwriter based in Joshua Tree, California and is a new artist to us, but has already released a couple of albums. This latest release (brought to us by Last Night From Glasgow) promises a sound that “weaves together elements of disco, rock n roll, country and folk” so we knew we had to check it out..

 We love an album that really hits the ground running and this one certainly does with the excellent “Does This Song Sound Familiar”. It’s a Californian feeling pop song but with a hint of country that makes the song swing along. It’s followed by the absolutely sublime “City Lights” which has a brilliant disco sound to it… it’s a song guaranteed to get you moving.

Things then get a bit more poignant with the balladry sound of a “Step Too Far”, a song that you feel you should be listening to in the hazy evening sunshine. One of the many highlights of the album is the brilliant “Middle Of The Night”. This and songs like “Just What It Is” should really appeal to fans of Jenny Lewis. In particular the first of those song could easily have appeared on her brilliant ‘The Voyager’ album.

What we really love about Pearl Charles and this album is that there is a definite ‘style’ to her sound. That’s very much a Californian/Laurel Canyon music scene feel but what she does brilliantly is add in textures from other genres. That means we go from the 70’s pop of “Smoke In The Limousine” to the Caribbean feel (courtesy of steel drums) on “Nothing On Me“. Although our favourites are when she returns to a disco pop sound on tracks like “Givin It Up”  and “Birthday”.

But there’s even more twists and turns after that. We get the wonderful country boogie of “Gone So Long” which, given the sound, has the surprising appearance of Tim Burgess as a guest vocalist. Those who get a copy of this release with the bonus track “You Know It Ain’t Right” have the joy of ending the album with a bit more disco flavoured pop.

This album is definitely up there with the best we have heard in 2025. It’s just an absolute joy to listen to and is a reminder of how uplifting music can be. It’s one that we will be immediately adding to our vinyl collection once released. We are also very confident that this album (and indeed Pearl Charles’ back catalogue) will be the soundtrack to our summer. Let’s just hope we get the sunny, hot weather that this music deserves!