The Reds, Pinks And Purples Summer At Land's End LP (Green Vinyl)

Summer at Land's End is the 4th LP from The Reds, Pinks & Purples, Glenn Donaldson's solo kitchen pop "band." Since 2019 The Reds, Pinks & Purples has built an obsessive, ever-growing following by combining a traditional vinyl-oriented release schedule with monthly drops of new songs on Bandcamp and live streams on Instagram. 2021's Uncommon Weather was something of a breakthrough, getting actual radio airplay and even reaching #7 in the UK indie album breakers chart. Hitting a wildly prolific phase, Donaldson is back in less than a year with the brilliantly ambitious Summer At Land's End.

Like the blossoming flower-themed sleeve might imply, it's bursting with heart-ripped-open vocals, ringing guitars, and warm reverberations. There are still plenty of concise indie-pop songs, but the album expands on the formula of the first three LPs into hazier acoustic sounds and some extended mood pieces. You might hear '80s and '90s influences in the echoing guitars, Creation, Teenbeat, 4AD, or even the radio pop of your youth, but more so, you might hear melodies and words that resonate someplace deep down as you journey through "Land's End" and move the needle back to the beginning again.

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 Donaldson's band stands head and slumped shoulders above everyone else plying a similar trade.... 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 he's 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.... Perfect pop for perfectly sad people will never go out of style, and Summer at Land's End is more proof that Glenn Donaldson and the Reds, Pinks & Purples have the market pretty much cornered.