Falling Letters: Pearl and the Beard

Artist: Pearl and the Beard

Album: Killing the Darlings

Year: 2011

Length: 32 minutes, 51 seconds

Genre: Folk rock
Why I picked it up: Loved the band's first album

Favourite tracks: Reverend, Sweetness

Random lyric:
Purchase: Vinyl, CD or digital from The Family Records

My first purchase of music released this year! Just a few days after I bought label-mate Lacrymosa's album, Pearl and the Beard released their much-anticipated (for me, at least) follow up to their 2009 album, God Bless Your Weary Soul, Amanda Richardson. The Family Records is a small indie record-label based in New York that manages four artists and has another two on their label. Of the four they manage, I adore Lacrymosa, Wakey!Wakey! and Pearl and the Beard (Casey Shea isn't really my style). I came across the label a few years ago, through AmieStreet (RIP), and am very happy that I did.

From their bio:

Pearl and the Beard is three voices, one cello, one guitar, one glockenspiel, one melodica, several drums, one accordion, ninety-six teeth, and one soul.

There are three main reasons why I adore this band:

Use of percussion and cello - hooray for tambourines and hand clapping and toe-tapping beats! Do tambourines and hands count as percussion? In my head they do. As for the cello, who doesn't cello? I like how its played here, either totally into the song or adding to some chill beats (I don't know what I'm talking about either.)
Vocals - Jocelyn, Emily and Jeremy have three voices that seem to match/complement each other perfectly in a way I'd never heard before. Their voices really do make it sound as though they share the same soul. They are very nice to listen to.
The feeling that you get, that they're just three people having fun making music together and nothing more. It's a refreshing feeling to get from music.

The only 'complaint' I have about this album is the mood of the songs, and that's just a personal preference thing. Most of them are a lot quieter, seemingly more melancholic and introspective than the songs on God Bless. The songs themselves are still very lovely, but I prefer the fun upbeat Pearl and the Beard.

Something I've been thinking a lot about lately is album length. This album is 10 songs, but it's only 32 minutes. I have it in my head that if I'm going to pay $10 for an album that I should get an hour of music. This is most likely a ridiculous demand. Musicians put so much work into crafting their songs. Consider the effort that goes into making a single song, let alone ten. What right do I have to demand more music? As a listener, I should be content with and be able to appreciate whatever a musicians creates for me. I understand all this logic. But still. I can't help but feeling half an hour is not a very long time. I have a lot of albums that come in around the one hour mark. All of my Depeche Mode albums, for example, time between ~45 to ~62 minutes, although granted, that's a totally different style of music. I feel satisfied after listening to an album that length. When an album is less than 35 minutes, I feel like I've been left hanging. Is that just me? Is there an ideal album length? Do I have any right to suggest one? These are questions that I've been thinking about a lot lately. This album spurred a lot of these thoughts, so I thought I'd make note of that.

All in all, though, this is an album probably worth your $8, though I'd recommend you buy their debut album first over this one. Final words, just support the lovely little trio that is Pearl and the Beard.