I am very excited and grateful to be able to review GUTTER PEARL's debut album "Delusions of Grandeur" which was released on December 6th, 2024. GUTTER PEARL is a psych-punk band from Philadelphia that is made up of four members:
Chels- Vocals, rhythm guitar
Campbell- Bass
Shai- Backup vocals, lead guitar
Paul- Percussion
I was so pleased by all of my interactions with the members, they are such incredibly kind and fun people, and I even managed to trace back Chels to a personal connection involving a mutual friend!
"Delusions of Grandeur" is a ten-track album that runs about thirty-three minutes, and I'm ready to tell you all about it!
Severance:
The opening track to this album is an incredible four minutes and forty seconds. Usually I think it's a risky move to open an album with such a lengthy song, however, "Severance" is able to come across as almost three tracks in one. The first third starts off with some cymbal hits and a bass line that follows each corresponding beat, building into a full guitar strums, and then a synchronous guitar riff matches the bass notes in unison with a crunchy as hell tone. This first third is the only portion consisting of any vocals, and very short lyrics to begin with. The opening lyrics,
"Tumble
Down
That rabbit hole
Learn
Your place
And fill your role"
are CLEARLY written with the help of a crystal ball that predicted GUTTER PEARL would someday be inter-reviewed by CD-ROM Rabbit Hole; I simply refuse to accept any other explanation or interpretation of these lyrics, it's just so obvious! In all seriousness, the lyrics in this song seem to be a direct reference to Alice in Wonderland, specifically targeting the Queen of Hearts. Chels does a great job committing to the punk vocals with sporadic and erratic deliveries. To avoid redundancy and repeating myself throughout this entire album review, I'll say right here and right now that most (if not all) of these songs sound like they belong on the soundtrack for "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World", specifically Chels' vocals resemble Envy Adams to an unbelievable degree. Once the vocals wrap up, the second section of this song starts with a drum count-in and the fast paced guitars squeal like they're in a '90s Scooby-Doo movie during a chase scene (I'm coming up with some really weird, specific media references in this review...I don't know what's going on with me). When this section started, I legitimately thought it was already the second song on the album that just flowed together really well with the first, but no, we are still in the thick of "Severance". The guitar solo is very impressively showing off and the tone is so euphonious, specifically for punk fans and performers, that I'm sure there are so many people that have tried to achieve a similar sound with only varying degrees of success. After the intense guitar solos and heavy percussion, the song settles into an unexpected, groovy turn where the psychedelic side of this psych-punk project really shines. It feels and sounds like I just walked through a bead door into someone's basement and was immediately whacked with some a secondhand high from whatever was being smoked in said basement.
Doomed:
This song begins with a consistently crunchy and repeating guitar in a cyclical rhythm as the vocals come in, airy and disheartened, reflecting the core theme of being doomed. There is a bit of call-and-response or fill-in-the-blank between the vocals and instruments; as the vocals pause, the space is usually quickly utilized by guitar riffs that make the most of their short time. The whole theme of this song, conveyed by the lyrics, revolve around society coming to an end in order to reinvent itself and create a new and improved civilization. This song includes a spoken word section, which I usually find to be hit-or-miss, but either way, I always respect the commitment to attempt at spoken word, allowing for a more streamlined poeticism.
Tripping Tides:
Starting with a "one, two, thee, four", track three delivers a noticeable bass line that sounds almost like a theme for a boss battle in an old school video game, or MAYBE a water level, or MAYBE an underwater boss battle...who's really to say. In this instrumental track, the beginning is a heavy blast of all the instruments building and building until an eventual resolve which leads into a very dwindled and clean guitar and snare. It starts to pick up little by little, starting with twinkly, plucky guitar that is reminiscent of a lullaby, which is soon playing with the dichotomy of the soothing serenade and fuzzy crust guitar.
Stoned:
This is absolutely the song that the psychedelic-loving stoners have been waiting for on this album. Setting the scene with flicks of a lighter, bubbling of a bong, and obligatory coughing. The instrumentation is wild and chaotic with a lot of unusual and random sounds splattered all over the mix. The lyrics hone in on the most hilarious, yet regretfully relatable, aspects of stoner culture and experiences. The opening stanza,
"Time to take a bite of cold lo mein
A genius thought that pops into my brain
If I skip out on the microwave
Think of all the hours that I’ll save"
is so funny and such a goofy way to introduce the song. Another line I particularly enjoy is "Take a hit and hold it in too long. Pass out with my pants down on the lawn". But of course, we can't leave out the aspect of getting high when paranoia kicks in and everything becomes terrifying, "Paranoid and feeling very scared. Hearing things that I don’t think are there"
Lovely Sunny Day:
Halfway through the album, we have "Lovely Sunny Day" which is the most funky song on the album so far. We start off with a super groovy bass that with accentuating percussion that sounds eerily similar to "Blister In The Sun" by Violent Femmes. The guitar is VERY pumped full of reverb and it sounds like someone stepping in a large puddle while they have an entire pack of chewed bubblegum on their shoes. The first verse has a very unique vocal delivery, not quite deadpan or monotone, but for lack of better word, droning? That is until the chorus, which granted is very short with only "lovely sunny day, and chemicals in my brain", but the vocals definitely pick up and become a lot more dynamic for the choruses. Most of this song is just a super chill jam session with some very creative uses of percussion, seriously wacky effects in the guitar, and funky bass, and for the final chorus, there is a fun use of trippy echoing on the vocals.
Self Divide:
Sometimes on this album, there is a whiplash (in the best way) going from one very psychedelic song into the most punk song you've ever heard, and that is definitely the case when you start with "Lovely Sunny Day" and follow it up with "Self Divide". This track is just shy of two minutes long, has distorted, wailing guitar, and opens with loud and aggressive vocals. Simply put, the song is about exactly what the title suggests, a division of self. There is a war between two different versions of oneself. This is a timeless concept, absolutely, so maybe it's only because this movie is fresh in my mind, but this song instantly made me think of "The Substance", specifically when verse two states:
"Can’t coexist with myself
One has to go
They fight tooth and nail
Who stays I’ll never know"
This song is an absolute love (or hate) letter to self-deprecation and loathing.
Black Sheep:
Track seven starts off as GUTTER PEARL'S most industrial-punk opening, an absolutely DRONING guitar strum that rings out after the slow, desolate drum hits. What's nice about a lot of the titles on this album, is you get almost exactly what you'd expect from a song called "Black Sheep". It is a heavy, angsty song about isolation, rejection, and the inadequacy to fit in with the crowd. Calling all degenerates, pariahs, misfits, and BLACK SHEEP to join together for this outcast anthem, the chorus sings:
"Black sheep
Be free
Black sheep
Feel the open breeze
Black sheep
Run away with me
Black sheep
Be free
Black sheep
Feel the open breeze
Black sheep
Run away"
As we've been conditioned to expect, GUTTER PEARL of course accents this song with an extreme instrumental breakdown before the chorus repeats and resolves.
Ragdoll:
Ragdoll starts with a percussive count-in and booming bass while a distorted guitar strums lowly. The vocals are are somewhat drowned out and consumed by the rest of the mix (not a bad thing, they are still audible and I definitely believe this was a creative decision). The narrator is small, crumpled up, and discarded, giving permission for their mental and physical being to be out through the ringer, torn apart and beaten down.
"Take it out on me
Cause I'm your ragdoll
Pull out all my strings
Watch my limbs fall
Laid out desperately
Sew me back together baby
Then we
Can start over again"
Being treated like a doll right out of Sid from Toy Story's nightmare collection; everything that made them feel whole is taken from them and repurposed or put back together haphazardly with deliberate inaccuracy. To stick with this silly Toy Story analogy I've introduced, verse one sings,
"You blow me off
I say it’s alright
Now I'm left wondering where you’ll spend the night
I’ll wait around until I'm worth your time
Fool for your love
Just want you to be mine"
Reminds a lot of how Woody felt when Andy opened up his brand new Buzz Lightyear. Will this be the last movie reference I put in this review? Probably not, but who really knows?
CDSR:
Preparing for the finale of the album, "CDSR" (Can't do shit right) is a song about the frustrations with ourselves and the inability to do anything in the correct fashion, or socially acceptable way. Everything is a failed attempt, misperceived, or causes a fight, a heavily relatable concept of feeling down on yourself for just fucking everything up constantly. We've all felt absolutely hopeless, helpless, useless, and pathetic before, like the world would be better off if we just disappeared or never did anything at all to begin with. It's hard to say for sure, but I think this might be my favorite track on the album. It's angsty, raw, and so, so relatable. I also really love the vocal delivery, it sounds a lot like the singer of Remember Sports (formerly known as Sports). The chorus is catchy and easy to sing along with, but I particularly enjoy the visceral realism of the verses,
"What happened to my confidence
Can’t make sense of all this
Scatterbrained and fucking fried
Other times I’m on cloud nine
The comedown feels like a trainwreck"
and
"I say one thing and do another
Not thinking about who it might hurt
I never show up on time
Missed out on you
Guess that’s fine
I’ll crawl back where I came from"
I love the internal conflict and complications that come from not being able to keep promises or follow through on anything and how sometimes it feels safer and smarter to crawl into a hole and never bother or burden anyone with your existence ever again.
Braindead:
The final track of "Delusions of Grandeur" is titled "Braindead" and it was also the first single, originally released on October 25th, 2024. I really love the different percussion openings on this album, and the crunchy riff on this track isn't too complex but it gets the job done and gets stuck in my head. I am a huge fan of the very first lines, "filling up another ashtray, spilling guts on a Wednesday" really painting a picture but also balancing the more mundaneness of chain smoking on a Wednesday; there is an emotional numbness in this routine. The lyrics convey a sense of disillusionment, apathy, and existential struggle. The chorus presents the internal back-and-forth between wanting to feel alive versus just going through the motions. There is a lust and yearning for meaning in life but being consumed by stagnancy and monotony.
"Life has been in disarray
Wearing the same socks since Monday
Where’d the time go?
Trying to be convincing
I haven’t lost touch with everything
It all seems the same"
The redundant routine is starting to fall apart, the narrator is losing track of their time and schedule, forgetting to change their socks and the façade and appearance of holding it all together is cracking and catching up. Once again, I find it a little risky for first or final tracks to be released as singles, especially the last song on an album, sometimes it feels kind of like the ending is being spoiled for me, if that makes any sense at all. But in this case, I do strongly understand why this song was chosen to be a single. I think it is catchy, relatable, and the instrumentation is digestible enough to catch the attention of a broader audience, while still showing off their unique style and talent, I think some of GUTTER PEARL's more far-out songs might be a harder sell and introduction for more casual listeners.
I am so fortunate to be able to do these reviews and discover so much new music and share it with all of you incredible readers. I am so happy that Chels reached out and I hope all the members of GUTTER PEARL are excited about and proud of their work. A debut album is no small feat, it takes a lot of work, energy, money, skill, patience, and coordination to make art of any kind, and I'm so glad it has made its way over to my radar. I hope you all take the time to give "Delusions of Grandeur" a listen, and read below to see the interview I did with Chels, Shai, Paul, and Campbell, they all have such lovely personalities and we had a lot of fun discussing the band and album together!
Interview
"Delusions of Grandeur" is your debut album, I hope you are all proud of yourselves and acknowledge how huge of an accomplishment that is!
How long of a process did this album take?
Chels: Hard to say, but me and Campbell started GP in April-ish of 2023. We co-wrote the lyrics and strings for most of the songs in maybe 4 months? Then we recorded demos in the summer of 2023 after we met our drummer Paul. We felt like these songs deserved more spice so we hunted for a lead guitarist, and then when Shaion became our 4th Pearl, the songs took a totally new shape. Once we were solidified as a 4 piece band, we hit the studio in May of 2024 and finished recording/mixing in November.
Campbell: All in all it took maybe a year and a half.
Shaion: I’m so proud of what we’ve done to be able to record this album! A big thanks to Josh from Monstera as well for recording and mixing it for us. The recording process took a while, spread over time, but I feel the time in between sessions ensured that we always came in ready to lay down tracks.
How did you all get together to form this musical project? How did you all come together and decide what kind of music you wanted to make together?
Chels: Me and Campbell met through this music app called Plaze. We met Paul and Shai through DIY Music Philly group on Facebook! I love the dynamic of being 4 internet strangers with different musical influences and coming together to make songs that fit all our tastes.
Paul: We came together from the amazing DIY Philly page! I think the direction we eventually went in came from a taste in all of our musical influences, punk, rock, psych and even metal.
Shaion: Well I’m the last member to join the band, coming in almost a year ago in February 2024. I found the band’s ad through a Facebook Group and it’s been magic ever since the audition! I’m definitely new to the Philly scene, but in the time I’ve been in Gutter Pearl I’ve really appreciated Chelsea and Campbell’s psychedelic songwriting tendencies.
Do you each have a favorite song on the album, and why?
Chels: It's probably Severance for me. The working title was called Queens up until we were releasing it as a single. Campbell wrote this really psychy bass riff that was QOTSA inspired, hence Queens. The combo of the psychy intro and title made me think of the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland. I was also recently fired from my job and pissed off about being poor, so I kind of ran with an Alice inspired take on what it feels like to be in the working class.
Campbell: Mine is black sheep. It was the first instance where I felt I was really accentuating each of my bandmates strengthens through my writing sensibilities.
Paul: It's a tie between Stoned and Tripping Tides- whenever Stoned comes on I just get giggly. It’s such a fun song! But Tripping Tides is just so fun to play. As a drummer getting to hammer that ride cymbal bell just feels so good every time with its fast-paced flow.
Shai: I’d have to say Severance. It’s the first song I heard from the band and it got me into their sound initially, so it will always have a place in my heart.
Is there anything you would like to do different on any future albums moving forward? Whether it be writing, recording, musical style, anything at all.
Chels: Yeah, we learned a lot about how to be more collaborative in the writing process. We also learned a lot about each other's influences which has kind of given us more insight to why we write the way we do individually. I think this first album we were trying to figure out how we fit together like a puzzle, and now that we better understand each other, we really gel. We always have these band meetings at practice where we're really honest with each other about all aspects of the band and we can always come to a common ground.
Campbell: We definitely want to streamline the recording process. It took a lot out of us this time around.
Paul: I would love for the next step we take to have a more elaborate sound, one that doesn’t just pool from each of our influences but truly demonstrates it in the songs. A lot of our influences can be heard listening to each song like a blend of our favorite flavors, but going forward I’d love it to stand out in each song within each of our individual parts and playing. Essentially more time to shine for each of us per song, and really defining a tone, not just a sound.
It's been a little over a month since the album released, have you been pleased with the reception? Have you been able to play shows to promote it or do you have any other exciting plans to help with spreading the word?
Chels: I try not to set an expectation when it comes to public perception of my art, because at the end of the day we'd do it even if everyone hated it, but people have been so supportive and kind about these songs. It really does warm my soul to know that people give a shit about it. We had a release show at Creep Records and sold all our tapes for the album, and seeing people in the audience sing the songs back at me made me so emotional.
Campbell: We had our release show and haven’t done too much else yet. We’ll be playing some shows this year to support the album.
Paul: I think the album has been received pretty well, and there’s been a genuine critique in a good way by many people. I think it’s good people like it-but we do it because we love it. And if we weren’t having fun, then we wouldn’t be doing it at all!
Shai: Absolutely! I love knowing that we have some listeners in Venezuela!
I NEED to know, how did you come up with the name "Gutter Pearl"? Where did that come from?
Chels: Me and Campbell's birthdays are one day apart in June. We're Cancers and our birthstone is a pearl. So we wanted to incorporate something about that. Then we're like, how do we describe our music? There's beauty and grime to it. Somehow we got to GUTTER PEARL.
Campbell: This was part of a giant spitball. We had a few other names but weren’t quite set on them. I was vamping on the theme of pearls because chels and myself are both June babies and that’s our birthstone, and gutter pearl just kinda came to me. Fun fact, it can also be interpreted as a sexual innuendo, but that was more of an after the fact discovery from our end.
Paul: What Chels and Campbell said, but I really liked how it also fit the concept of “a diamond in the rough”.
What was your thought process as far as choosing to release "Braindead" and "Severance" as singles? Did you know the would be the first and last songs on the album, or was the tracklist finalized after the fact?
Chels: We pretty much always open our shows with Severance, I think because it really speaks to the genre blend we try to create. The intro is psychy, the meat of the song is punky and the outro is heavy into psychedelic again. I think it has the same effect when trying to get people to dive into the album.
Braindead actually wasn't going to be a single, but the recording sounded really fucking awesome that we swapped it instead of CDSR. We used to always end our set with Braindead, but now we've been playing it into a new song that didn't make the album called "Roadkill".
Campbell: Severance was one that was an easy candidate. It has different sections and a not so typical structure so it was a way for us to make a statement. Braindead also has lots of different styles in it, so those two were great choices to kind of show the audience what all we were capable of.
Are there any dream venues you've been able to play/hope to play?
Chels: UNION TRANSFER. It's forever my favorite venue. I've made a lot of friends going to shows there solo and the sound is just always so sick.
Campbell: Johnny Brenda’s
Paul: My dream venue is and always will be to play the BB&T pavilion. I grew up seeing all the big bands playing shows there, and mark my words, I WILL be up there!!
Do you have any go-to pre/post-show rituals or traditions? Is there a specific restaurant you go to eat after a gig?
Chels: We've made it a tradition to take pictures of Paul eating at the kit during sound check. I've been working on a collage since we started the band. From dumplings at a basement gig to a Scooby-Doo ass hoagie at a backyard show. I'm a social butterfly too so I'll try to chitchat with any unfamiliar faces I see in between sets. Introverts probably hate to see my yappin ass comin.
Campbell: My pre-show ritual is to chop it up with Frank (Chelsea’s husband) and to try to get to know the other groups we’re playing with. No specific post-show movements. I usually like to get home and relax after a show. I’m an old man in that regard.
Paul: Ah yes, the pre-show snack is my favorite band ritual by far that I’ve ever had!
Could you give me your sales pitch to get people to listen to your music? Who is the ideal demographic?
Chels: If you’re a person that claims to “listen to everything”, I guarantee this albums got something for you. We got straight punk, funk, shoegazy bits, spoken word rock n’ roll, you name it. I’ll also say, we started writing new songs since the release and I feel like we are becoming more polished as a unit. We’re kind of headed into the realm of if Sonic Youth, Black Sabbath and Hum had a love child. So if you’re into that kind of thing, listen to our debut album and come to our shows to hear new shit because we probably ain’t recording for a while so you’ll have to bootleg it at a gig.
I like to leave this space open for bands to give all their shout outs, any other bands or friends or family that you’d like to name, for any reason whatsoever, now is the time to do it!
From the band: Huuuge shout out to our buddy Josh (the bassist of Monstera) for recording and producing Delusions of Grandeur. Also big hugs to our OG’s who have been listening to these songs since our bare bones demos on Bandcamp haha. And mad love to all the bands (Monstera, GORF, Kulfi Girls, Seeing Snakes, Connor Kirk, etc.) who ever asked us to hop on a bill. It’s hard as fuck to get gigs when you don’t have Spotify so we couldn’t have made it this far without yall. Luv the Philly scene 4ever <3 SUPER SPECIAL THANK YOU to Eric aka Jersey Wall ~ the friendly neighborhood photographer who is the #1 supporter of the Philly scene, we’d have zero content without his snazzy photos. LUV U PHILLY GO BIRDS !!!!
Thank you all so much for taking the time to chat with me!
Huge shoutout-out to the members of GUTTER PEARL, please stream their brand new album “Delusions of Grandeur” and you can find all their links HERE!
Related Posts
