As the musical platform of San Francisco-based songwriter Glenn Donaldson, The Reds, Pinks & Purples have been prolific over the last six years, enough so that even the most veracious lovers of melancholy and smart indie pop will have experienced difficulty keeping up with the outpouring of the songs. Well, Donaldson and his new label Fire Records have done a favor for fans and newbies alike by collecting a strong batch of tunes from the outfit’s pool of roughly 200 that have never been given a physical release before. Indeed, The Past Is a Garden I Never Fed is a compilation, but one with no filler that gets right to the core of what’s special about The Reds, Pinks & Purples. It’s out now on LP, CD, and digital.
If one commits oneself to the playing of indie pop, either as part of a band or as the creative engine of a project that either enlists the aid of others or comes to fruition all by one’s own devices, getting the sound right is crucial. Or at least that’s so if one is striving to equal the achievements of the great acts in the genre. It can be jangly, dreamy, achy, angular, punky, or some combination of these descriptors, but absorbing the genre’s essence and extending it is essential rather than approximating and, in turn, diluting it.
Embodying and elevating the sound instead of merely imitating; Glenn Donaldson understands. It’s evident in the layered guitar distortion and acoustic strum of “I Only Ever Wanted to See You Fail,” and also in how he opts for a melodica, instead of say, a harmonica, during “Slow Torture of an Hourly Wage.” A harmonica would’ve been fine, but the melodica sets the track apart and readies it for longevity.
But with this album’s opener “The World Doesn’t Need Another Band,” Donaldson also seems to realize that one can get in the neighborhood of noise-pop perfection without creating so much as a minor stir in the grand scheme of things. In the 21st century, creating indie pop is an endeavor undertaken for the love of it.
And yet, that’s not so different from how it’s always been. The Wedding Present and Felt are justifiably legendary now, but that’s, of course, in context. It’s surely possible fewer people know those names today than did in the 1980s when they were essentially part of the underground. But naturally, listening to The Wolfhounds or Television Personalities alone in one’s bedroom at 2am and scoffing that nobody else gets it was part of the appeal (at least for the listeners).
In 2025, there are scores of indie pop acts that are in it because they love it and they get the sound right. It’s an incredibly fertile genre, but what sets The Reds, Pinks & Purples as a cut further above is Donaldson’s lyrics. This is often the weakest aspect of an indie pop record, and it’s also easy to give this lacking a pass, but The Past Is a Garden I Never Fed is further reinforcement that Donaldson tackles themes that are beyond the norm, and when he does grapple with standard subjects, he avoids cliché.
It’s near impossible to not get an Anglocentric feeling when listening to The Reds, Pinks & Purples, but that’s not a problem, for as said, the music is embodying and elevating rather than imitating. “You’re Never Safe From Yourself” references the bay of Donaldson’s home city, and “A Figure on the Stairs” name drops a Saint Vitus LP. The Past Is a Garden I Never Fed can move from Postcard-esque crispness to raising a Creation-style racket and it’s the words and the timbre of Donaldson’s voice that holds it all together so beautifully.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
A-
