“’What’s Going On With Ordinary People,’ like a lot of my songs, you can get the main idea in the title. We have probably all been wondering about this lately, with ordinary people jacked-up on propaganda, targeted advertising and general paranoia.”—Glenn
Crystalizing the tragic self-celebrating kingdoms of fortunate failures, false heroes, music press deities of limitless deceit, hometown dive gods and humanity in the grips of all its romanticized wonder and woe — the latest missive from DIY pop titan The Reds, Pinks & Purples takes aim at the threads of hope with an untethered abandon into the intimacy and dualities of idolatry and isolation with Unwishing Well.
Distilling the timelines of distinction from yesterday, today, tomorrow and whatever may be; Glenn Donaldson has materialized a musical phenomenon that embodies something more than all of its analogous inspirations. From a musical legacy that chronicles a long list of minor triumphs and major tragedies— the continued saga of The Reds, Pinks & Purples stands tall as the encapsulation of Donaldson’s own proliferation and prestige ever since its emergence in the late 2010s.
Unwishing Well pontificates on the promiscuity of the pop machines’ propped up and exploited brand ambassadors with the cutting “Your Worst Song is Your Greatest Hit,” or the collective commissaries of commerce exhibitionism on “Public Art,” to auditing the forums of obsessive fandom with “Learning to Love a Band.” “What’s Going on with Ordinary People” balks with concern over contemporary states of regressive trends, while “Faith in Daydreaming Youth” questions what hope and valor can be found in the new pop culture vanguards that govern the world’s sovereign daydream nations. The dustbins of dastardly discontinuity are imbued with desire and grief on “Dead Stars in Your Eyes,” to the discarded ditches of obscurity on “Nothing Between the Lines at All.” The human addiction to languishing in anguish, misery and negativity tussles, tosses and turns on “We Only Hear the Bad Things People Say,” the penultimate ode to inherent human fallibility as “Goodbye Bobby” rides out into the gilded sunset glow.
The central set piece of Unwishing Well revolves around the title track that wrestles with wellness and wishes tempered by the sobering reality of ultra pragmatic skepticism. Unwishing Well is a reflection of us, the icons we adore, the Adonises we worship, the false prophets that proselytize the edicts from theses cults of personality, the fallouts, the third acts and the artistic fabrics that spool these sub-sects of artful dodgers into the stuff of legend. Glenn once again uplifts and uproots the undercurrents that carry the commonalities between the spectators and the spectacles.
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