The Reds, Pinks and Purples – The Past Is a Garden I Never Fed (Fire)

There’s a special kind of romance in Glenn Donaldson’s work that explores the understated ache that sits between moments. This might be in the quiet indignities of creative life, the drift of friendships, or the daily performance of holding yourself together. Under his long-running project The Reds, Pinks and Purples, Donaldson has, over the last half-decade, steadily cultivated a personal and distinctive indie pop universe.

The eight albums in six years have traced a clear line between the home-recorded jangle of Uncommon Weather and the expansive gloom-pop of The Town That Cursed Your Name. Now, The Past Is a Garden I Never Fed arrives as something of a clearinghouse for unreleased material, but this collection of songs feels as purposeful as his previous albums.

From the first clatter of drums and squalling guitars on The World Doesn’t Need Another Band, we are in the familiar territory of lo-fi textures, chiming guitar chords, and vocals that feel like overheard monologues. Donaldson’s singing is less about fronting a band and more about wistfully narrating a life. Even the more energetic cuts (I Only Ever Wanted To See You Fail, Your Cult Is on Fire) carry that reluctant acceptance that defines his songwriting.

The album moves with a rhythm that reflects its subject matter of day jobs, toxic friends, inner demons, and minor transgressions. Slow Torture Of An Hourly Wage feels like a thesis statement: its skipping drums and stabbing guitar chords conjure the numbing grind of precarious employment, while the keys briefly suggest something loftier. Elsewhere, You’re Never Safe From Yourself channels that anxious propulsion into something anthemic, as the drums push the song forward with a purposeful urgency.

But it is the quieter moments that linger. Richard In The Age Of The Corporation offers a Jarvis Cocker like study in weary observation, with circling guitar lines and lawyerly poise. And the final track, There Must Be A Pill For This, stands out for its finger-picked acoustic guitar, echoing vocals, and abrupt end that feels like the title is a question left hanging.

There is variation from louder, fuzzier guitar textures on My Toxic Friend to brighter rhythmic turns on Your Taste Makes You Strange. The production keeps the intimacy as you hear the strings move, the drums thud, and the lyrics drift in like fragments of overheard conversation about life’s daily burdens. Donaldson’s consistent vocal tone keeps your attention through repetition, phrasing, and emotional candour.

Where Donaldson’s early work felt like a secret passed between old friends, The Past Is A Garden I Never Fed opens the door a little and invites you into an untended garden, and even what seemed discarded has now bloomed in unexpected ways.

John Bradbury

The Past Is A Garden I Never Fed is out now on Fire Records

John Bradbury
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