Unwishing Well

LOCAL! Catchy, wistful, immaculate guitar pop. This is the wildly prolific project of longtime San Francisco musician Glenn Donaldson, and his romantically melancholy songs are perfectly suited to walking around the foggy outer avenues. Like his previous albums, pillowy guitar and synth textures serve as the bed for dour but deeply felt lyrics about the Bay Area grind and the plights of working artists. RIYL: the Smiths, the Go-Betweens, Felt, other Slumberland Records artists. Favorites: 1, 2, 4, 6, 9. No FCCs detected.

1. *(3:44)—Mid-tempo, floaty and gentle but propulsive.
2. *(3:02)—Mid-tempo. Watery eveningtime music. Melodica melody?
3. (3:02)—Slow. Soft guitar strumming.
4. *(4:29)—Very slow, no drums. Impassioned singing, ripples of distorted guitar. Pensive and lovely.
5. (3:53)—Medium-slow, with dense layers of synth and distorted guitar. "The market makes demands we can't understand." Long coda.
6. *(2:43)—Medium-slow. Lush, with a swaggering rhythm and prominent acoustic guitar strumming. This could've been a hit in the UK around 1990.
7. (2:30)—Mid-tempo. Pretty and strummy.
8. (2:57)—Medium-slow. Pretty chord progression, an easygoing majesty. "Are you the public art no one wanted / standing in the park undaunted?"
9. *(3:26)—Mid-tempo, subtle but insistent beat. Prominent synth. Soft but danceable.
10. (6:03)—Slow instrumental. No drums. Lonely electric guitar strumming with curlicuing guitar melodies on top.