Summer At Land's End

In a very short time, the Reds, Pinks & Purples have made a case for themselves as the foremost inheritors of the super-sensitive, reverb-besotted indie pop mantle held at various times by Felt or the Field Mice. Now, Glenn Donaldsons band stands head and slumped shoulders above everyone else plying a similar trade. The three albums the RP&Ps released before 2022s Summer at Lands End were home-crafted miniatures of majestically felt emotional distress, underwater guitar jangle, and the kind of melodies youd beat up your best friend for in a heartbeat. This record is more of the same but a little different, too. Previously, each bitter, tear-stained song tended to run into each other like an unbroken tale of heartache and woe. Not a terrible thing to be sure; in fact, the enveloping nature of the melancholy was one of the strongest selling points. Here, Donaldson seems to have placed extra care in not only honing the songs until they had pointed tips that would slice through hearts like they were nothing, but hes lifted some of the grey haze that surrounds them, too. This means his voice cuts through more, the guitars ring a little louder, and the drums kick a touch more powerfully. Songs like "Dont Come Home Too Soon" and "Pour the Light In" stand out like hit singles with beaming melodies and little standing between Donaldsons emotion-wracked voice and the listeners soul. They still fit well within the framework of the rest of the record, and it does present the same kind of unified front of sadness as previous work, only a little brighter now. He also breaks up the album by inserting a lengthy instrumental that shares a title with the album and features guitars that echo in happily meandering ways, conjuring up an imagined jam session between Vini Reilly of Durutti Column and Felts Maurice Deebank. (A limited-edition vinyl version of the record features an entire extra disc of songs in a similar style.) These upgrades dont negate any of the insular feel or crushing sense of melancholy that their first three albums had, it merely brushes aside some of the fog so that one can see a little more clearly the pain and sadness on display. Perfect pop for perfectly sad people will never go out of style, and Summer at Lands End is more proof that Glenn Donaldson and the Reds, Pinks & Purples have the market pretty much cornered. ~ Tim Sendra