![]() ![]() She does her best to balance the record’s self-help themes with a welcome levity in sound and structure, though it doesn’t always work: On “With,” her picture of a calm, unbothered life sounds a little too lullaby-like to take seriously. It’s an admission of defeat set to a paradoxically climactic finale. ![]() In “Effort,” she runs down a bullet-pointed list of coping strategies- “Watch dumb TV/Go for a walk/Write in a journal”-before finally confessing, “I am spent/I am spent/I am spent,” over swelling strings. Rodriguez’ introspective lyrics occasionally resemble journal entries from someone intent upon finding her inner child, but just as often she pokes gentle fun at such therapy-speak. But the questions she asks are charged with gravitas: “Reminder of the grand creation/How did she keep on fighting? How do you keep on fighting?” She ponders “the mystery of the sea who lived beyond her time,” backed by a toy piano and a small yet vibrant-sounding orchestra to create a mystical, even naive soundscape. Likewise, on “Ming the Clam,” she uses the real-life tale of a centuries-old mollusk to question a loved one’s mortality and her own role in a relationship. Album opener “Strong” begins with an air of whimsy-Rodriguez sings offhandedly of the theft of a credit card with a laid-back country twang-but quickly turns into a lonely cry for help: “Suddenly I feel like I don’t have time left,” she yells as a brass section accents her fear of death. Rodriguez details the world around her with sharp clarity, and her lyrics sometimes sound taken from a children’s book or an old, forgotten fable, her hearty voice a guide to existential questions about death, doubt, and dreams. Produced by Tyler Postiglione - who also worked on Rodriguez’ 2019 EP Quilting & Other Activities - Oh Glistening Onion spins the peculiarities of our emotions into playful country romps… ![]() ![]() The Brooklyn-based folk singer who records as Pearla says that although she may write music in order to “solve a mystery,” after completing a song, questions typically outweigh answers: “The mystery remains, no matter how many words are dancing around it.” 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. Nicole Rodriguez is a detective of uncertainty. ![]()
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