Girl in the Half Pearl is the second full-length studio album by American alternative R&B and neo-soul singer Liv.e. It has received positive reviews from critics and has been included on several 2023 best of lists.
Reception
Editors at AnyDecentMusic? rated this release a 7.4 out of 10, based on five reviews.
Editors at AllMusic rated this album 4 out of 5 stars, with critic Paul Simpson writing that this album is "both more introspective and more expansive than [Liv.e]'s previous work, drawing from a wider range of stylistic influences and containing lyrics that are more upfront about the artist's desires and conflicts". Editors at Bandcamp chose this for Album of the Day, with Mercy Kassa characterizing it as "a psychedelic collection of jazz-infused, soulful tracks that tackle themes of Black womanhood, self-determination, and liberation, giving listeners a front row experience to the struggle to find personal and creative freedom". HipHopDXs Lauren Floyd scored this album a 4.5 out of 5, calling it a "beautiful expression of self" that "thematically weaves the concepts of womanhood and honest expression in a world that prioritizes neat, clean and easily understood motifs". In Loud and Quiet, Tom Critten gave this album 7 out of 10, for the "effortlessness" of Liv.e's songwriting. NPR's Teresa Xie summed up her review, "Liv.e's meditative concoction of sounds, which pull from many genres but can never be attributed to one in particular, like many great mixes, reveal the ways that growth and disorientation oscillate between each other like a pendulum".
Editors at Pitchfork Media chose this as Best New Music of the week and shortlisted it one of the best albums of February 2023, with critic Phillipe Roberts writing that it "cuts to the scene after the diary slams shut, when your face crashes into the pillow before a long and sleepless night". Marc Hogan of that site proposed Grammy Award nominees and chose this to contend for Grammy Award for Best Progressive R&B Album. Writing for The Quietus, Arusa Qureshi finished her review calling this "an album that is hard to categorise but its methodical beats, otherworldly production, intriguingly chaotic clashes of melody and hazy vocals all inexplicably mesh together, with Liv.e leaning further and further towards that vital point of breakthrough". In a profile for Rolling Stone, Matthew Ritchie writing that this release "captures the feeling of your world breaking down, then trying to sort through the rubble to rebuild a new reality" and that the diverse music is comparable to Erykah Badu. Spins Julian Towers wrote that this album is "more jagged and sharp-edged in its sonic architecture" than Liv.e's 2020 effort Couldn’t Wait to Tell You. Writing for Stereogum Yousef Srour calls this release "more direct" than Liv.e's last full-length. Michelle Dalarossa of Under the Radar rated this release an 8 out of 10, summing up "to contain this many sounds and probe this many emotional episodes—from the breathlessness of blooming love to the deception of a failed relationship, the insecurity of missing someone to the confidence of letting go—is no easy feat, but one of Liv.e’s greatest strengths lies in her fluidity and bold instincts". Craig Jenkins of Vulture stated that the "album’s confident mind-set and musicality are defenses against the unpleasantness of the decade, during which patriarchal power structures persist in spite of a universal outcry and a casual rudeness has infected countless facets of public life".