Artist: Pearl
Title: Little Immaculate White Fox
Type: Album
Label: Powerage

Pearl’s a singer and they say that she once was a winner, with the help of daddy and her hubby. Well after rearranging some lyrics and having an Elkie Brooks classic forced into your head for the next week or so let’s tell you all about Pearl Aday. Well her daddy is rather famous for singing under his better known stage name Meatloaf and daughter Pearl has performed as his backing singer on tour as well as doing the same for the likes of Motley Crue, Filter and Ace Frehley. She also has a rather famous husband, Scott Ian which is kind of handy as it allows him to moonlight in her band. Then of course there are bound to be a few friends on hand to contribute to the album too, we have among them Jerry Cantrell and everyone’s most loathed redneck Ted Nugent (on the eve of the sad death of Ronnie James Dio I kind of feel like saying, the wrong ones die first all too often, oops I just did). So what of the album; is Pearl a cat out of hell?

Well it starts out with balls and ‘Rock Child’ is a formidable exercise in clunge rock guaranteed to kick off a barroom brawl. Yep she can sing and the likes of Lita Ford and Joan Jett are not a million miles away from this. The song packs a powerful punch and has the requisite hooks to deliver the goods. The chances are an album like this is going to have a cover or two and the first of these is quickly trotted out. Not a bad job is done of Tina Turner’s ‘Nutbush City Limits’ either but is it necessary, do we need another hero? It is interesting to note that Tina was the same age as Pearl when she originally penned this. Slow burners such as ‘Broken White’ allow a more expressive performance and Pearl handles this and more syrupy ballads of which the album has several such as ‘Mama’ with heartfelt emotion.

There are more in the schmaltzy ballad-etched slow burners on the album than there are the real hard rockers so this is on the whole quite a chilled listen, with occasional moments snapping you back into gear as you drive down the highway. Perhaps this is truck stop, drive time stuff and it will certainly help those going the long distance, it’s accessible and totally unchallenging stuff. I can happily spend the time listening to this as a distraction but on the whole have to question its appeal to a more \\metal// audience.

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