by Dash Lewis (@gardenerjams)
It feels like Glenn Donaldson plucks his songs out of mid-air. The hyper-prolific San Franciscan’s latest project, The Reds, Pinks and Purples, continues the tradition of catchy Bay Area pop, slotting somewhere between The Aislers Set’s fuzzed-out, detached loner jams and the dreamy melodicism of Lunchbox. He crafts heartstring-tugging pop songs out of a few simple elements: chiming guitars that waft alongside softly droning Casio notes, all anchored by the gentle chug of a drum machine. Donaldson’s lyrics tend to pick apart the mercurial nature of love, romantic and otherwise, finding that particular kind of melancholy that’s as yearning as it is acerbic. He sings about the walls we construct around ourselves and describes the claw marks we leave when we try, and fail, to climb them. He seems like he keeps his coat on at parties.
It’s fitting, then, that “Is Your Mind That Free?” begins with a fake out. The second single from The Reds, Pinks and Purples’ upcoming Slumberland mini-LP, They Only Wanted Your Soul, begins with a lilting guitar line and a drum fill that threatens to break into a motorik gallop. The promised snare never comes, though. It feels like bad news being delivered, the kind of stomach-dropping moment that punctuates an awful realization. Donaldson’s demanding answers from someone — perhaps a past lover, perhaps himself — assessing how much they really believe their own bullshit. As the track crescendos to a pleasantly narcotic shimmer, Donaldson’s bitter assertion cuts through clearly: “It’s all lies.”