Acknowledge Kindness

The Reds, Pinks & Purples — 2026

“Glenn Donaldson again turns reflection into something quietly devastating and strangely comforting.”

Glenn Donaldson has never been shy about his ghosts, but on Acknowledge Kindness he finally lets them pull up a chair. The tenth Reds, Pinks & Purples record is his most inward-facing work to date and his most assured. Each release finds Donaldson making small adjustments to texture and mood while keeping the midtempo engine running, lyrics doing the quiet work of pulling you in before you realize you’ve been caught. Where earlier records leaned into distorted indie rock, Acknowledge Kindness opens up the room. It’s more spacious, more patient, with Donaldson’s mordant voice planted right in front of you as he works through eleven new songs, rummaging through old journals and half-remembered feelings, making peace with the gap between who he was and who he is now. The result is the kind of record that feels like it was made for people who already know this feeling, and have for a long time.

What holds the album together is Donaldson’s uncanny ability to write sad songs that don’t drag you under. “Emo Band” wraps a pointed piece of self-awareness inside a genuinely gorgeous melody: “Keep it going if you can / Another show / Can you still pretend / To have feelings inside again / Keep it going / Emo band.” The whole thing lands somewhere between confession and dark comedy. That rearview mirror feeling is real here: the ache of being stuck, of performing yourself past the point of belief. “Doubt in Vain” rides a luminous piano figure toward a resolution that never quite arrives, which is exactly the point. When he delivers “You’re breaking / Every promise you made,” the emotional math leaves you empty in the best possible way, like the song knew what you were carrying before you did.

Acknowledge Kindness is a headphones record, full stop. These songs are earworms that feel like catching up with an old friend over a long drive, some stories offering a glimmer of hope, others quietly devastating. That range is the whole thing. That’s the Reds, Pinks & Purples.

“Heaven of Love” is one of the more upbeat jangles on the album and has one of the best set of lines when he says “Don’t be so cynical/Everything will be alright/Holy water doesn’t work on you.” Kinda tells you right away how he is feeling. “New Leaf” is the clearest example of how far Donaldson has stretched his sound. A slow-picked guitar loops almost like a mantra while he sings with careful caution; soft and hush like as he ends the record with “Helpless in the breeze maybe/Everyone of us a new leaf.” “Houses” carries a similar mood but lighter on its feet, its imagery of living in the seams of things landing with more weight than the soft pulse underneath it would suggest. The title track closes everything out as a hushed instrumental that functions less like an ending and more like an exhale.

I think The Field Mice or the Go-Betweens will fit the mood here especially with the chiming guitar and the way Donaldson wraps genuinely complicated feelings inside pop structures that feel almost effortless. For that matter you could argue The Cure as well. Emotionally I also connected American Music Club at their most bruised and open-hearted, without ever feeling like imitation.

Acknowledge Kindness does not ask for your sympathy so much as it quietly assumes your understanding, and that distinction is what makes it linger.