Keep Your Secrets Close: A Brief Review Of The New Album From The Reds, Pinks & Purples On Slumberland Records

The arrival of a new album from The Reds, Pinks & Purples is a reason for joy. And while this isn't entirely a "new" album, it's a release well worth your time. They Only Wanted Your Soul, out tomorrow via Slumberland Records, collects a rare early EP from Glenn Donaldson along with six other new tracks. The album doesn't feel like a compilation though.

The first four cuts on They Only Wanted Your Soul are from the I Should Have Helped You EP from 2020. Of these, the churn of "I Should Have Helped You" sparks immediately, while "Keep Your Secrets Close" rides a delicious Clientele-ish hook forward. Donaldson's craft here has just a few rough edges, enough that this feels, like his best work, like some of the best DIY indie you've heard in decades. Elsewhere, "Is Your Mind That Free?" chimes like early Felt, the guitar notes hanging in the air with a precise kind of elegance, while "Saw You at the Record Shop Today" is delightfully dour. It's like if Leonard Cohen took Lawrence's place in Felt, even as the chords have an understated heft. The mix here is enough like Felt that I can't help but mention it, even if that makes the third time I've name-checked that band today.

I think Glenn Donaldson would be fine with being compared to Felt, of course. Glenn is a deft composer, and while parts of his work nod in the direction of past pioneers, he's also intent on refining his own style. This one has a few surprises, like the proto-funk beats of "Workers of the World", but the tunes of They Only Wanted Your Soul are also wonderfully familiar, recalling not only the best things in your record collection, but the better numbers from earlier offerings from The Reds, Pinks & Purples. In that sense, They Only Wanted Your Soul warms the spirit and continues the streak of sublime indie-pop that's come from the mind of Glenn Donaldson in recent years.

They Only Wanted Your Soul by The Reds, Pinks & Purples is out tomorrow via Slumberland Records.

[Photo: Force Field PR]