“On her full-length debut, Oh Glistening Onion, The Nighttime Is Coming, Rodriguez folds together boundless curiosity with heady reflection; her record is as captivated by modern life’s intricacies as it is curious about what exists beyond them.” - Pitchfork (10 New Albums To Listen To Now)

"folksy and philosophical…Annie Dillard-esque" - NPR Music (NMF)

“full of beautifully realized indie pop and folk tracks augmented with touches of country twang and stirring orchestration” - Brooklyn Vegan

“Her transcendent storytelling weaves together an indie-folk record that finds strength in its vulnerability.” - Consequence

“...a playful exploration of existence, full of references to literature and scientific mishaps set to a dreamy indie-folk sound.” - VPM

“...Nicole Rodriguez…is no stranger to the melding of words, melodies, and arrangements into intricately woven miniatures to be marveled at.” - Under The Radar

“tour de force of an artist with the chops to make a grand statement.” - Treble

 Pearla’s music radiates with indiscriminate awe. Whether it’s the befuddling depths of nature or the profoundly strange spark of a dreaming mind—she takes it all as equal magic. Her debut album is populated by eccentric creatures and quixotic scenes, her takes on mortality, intimacy, and personal freeness glowing with an air of mystique. Oh Glistening Onion, The Nighttime Is Coming is a world unto itself.

Pearla is Nicole Rodriguez, a Brooklyn-based artist whose personal curiosities include finger puppets, writing songs with children, Virginia Woolf’s prose, and consulting the I Ching. On her 2019 EP Quilting & Other Activities, she posed existential questions like outlines in a coloring book, and scribbled in attempts at answers through off-kilter indie pop and a bewildered spirit—a collection praised as “music worth getting lost in” by NPR Music’s Bob Boilen, who described it as “stunning, ethereal, beautiful.” But on her highly anticipated full-length, arriving three contemplative years later, Pearla submits to the brilliance in not knowing. On Oh Glistening Onion…’s heart-stopping centerpiece “Effort,” she wails with wistful power atop strings arranged by Spacebomb’s Trey Pollard: I don’t know why it takes so much effort to feel good these days. It’s this submission to mystery, to the inexplicable fluidity of living, that places Pearla at peace within its wild current.