Songfacts®:

• "Pearly-Dewdrops' Drops" is a song by the Scottish alternative rock band Cocteau Twins. Many consider the cascading, opaque dream-waltz to be one of Cocteau Twins' signature songs, praising its ethereal soundscape, haunting vocals, and intricate guitar work.
• The track showcases the band's signature atmospheric and dreamy approach, blending Elizabeth Fraser's distinctive vocals – a mix of nonsensical language, tremulous noises and soaring high notes – with Robin Guthrie's layered guitar textures and Simon Raymonde's melodic basslines. Fraser's vocal acrobatics, particularly the soaring shrieks that punctuate the verses, add an element of otherworldly magic to the song.
  
  The lyrics of "Pearly-Dewdrops' Drops" are intentionally cryptic, owing to Fraser's abstract vocalizations, further enhancing the song's atmospheric qualities. It stands as a quintessential example of the dream pop and ethereal wave genres.
• Recorded at Rooster Studios in London, "Pearly-Dewdrops' Drops" found its way onto The Spangle Maker, an EP released on 4AD in April 1984. The EP marked the Cocteau Twins' first recording with Simon Raymonde.
• Released as a single on April 2, 1984, "Pearly-Dewdrops' Drops" marked Cocteau Twins' debut entry into the UK Singles Chart, reaching #29 – their highest-charting single. Despite its popularity with both fans and critics, guitarist Robin Guthrie later disowned the song. "'Pearly-Dewdrops' Drops' was a clinical exercise to get on Top Of The Pops," he told Mojo magazine in 2011. "Ivo (Watts- Russell, co-founder of 4AD) had asked for a single, to take us to the next level."
• "Pearly-Dewdrops' Drops" shows up in the 2012 romantic drama movie The Perks of Being a Wallflower.
• The Nigel Grierson-directed music video was filmed at The Chapel in Holloway Sanatorium, a Victorian asylum for the middle class insane in Virginia Water, Surrey, and in nearby Virginia Waters Park. It captured the band's dreamlike aesthetic perfectly. The visual shows Elizabeth Fraser gracefully traversing the empty corridors, bathed in soft, ethereal lighting. The video's slow-motion waterfall and scenes of Robin Guthrie and Simon Raymonde burning leaves add to the sense of atmosphere and mystery.
  
  But the video drew criticism for its perceived emphasis on clichés associated with the Cocteau Twins' music. Some saw it as reinforcing the band's image as a pre-Raphaelite fantasia, characterized by their chiming soundscapes and Fraser's ethereal vocals. Fraser herself echoed this sentiment, stating in an interview with Melody Maker that she found the video "terrible."