Summer at Land's End

LOCAL! Also spectacularly good! Gentle, romantic slice-of-heaven guitar pop from the Inner Richmond neighborhood in San Francisco. Sweet and delicious, like rose-flavored ice cream. Wistful, too. Written, performed, and recorded by Glenn Donaldson, who's been in 75,000 California bands and projects (among others the Jewelled Antler collective, the Skygreen Leopards, FWY!, Art Museums). Painfully pretty, riding the edge between bliss and heartbreak. Captures the feeling of walking around western San Francisco better than any other music I know. RIYL other Slumberland bands, C86 revivalism, Sarah Records, early Byrds, Real Estate, The Go-Betweens, The Fresh & Onlys. Favorites 1, 2, 7, 10, 11 (but all are fabulous, I want to live in these songs). FCC WARNING: 4.

1. *(3:12)—Medium-fast. Serene na-na-nas, soft strumming, subtle beat. "Still I miss you more, I miss you more, but don't come home too soon."
2. *(3:06)—Medium-fast, animated, sunny. "Swear there was a light behind your eyes / can't hang onto a dream, when you try you won't make it out alive."
3. (2:53)—Mid-tempo. Tom-heavy beat, wobbly lead guitar.
4. (2:21)—FCC (f***). Mid-tempo, strummy, with just tambourine for percussion.
5. (7:02)—Instrumental. Slow, downcast. Ringing guitar strumming.
6. (4:10)—Mid-tempo. Grand, with an especially memorable lead guitar line. Long coda. "All this time spent learning how to swim / through open clouds, pour the light in."
7. *(2:42)—Mid-tempo. Smooth and soothing, with wonderful vocal harmonies. Transcendent.
8. (3:05)—Mid-tempo, approaching post-punk. Wispy keyboard melody.
9. (3:15)—Medium-slow, relaxed. Soft beat, pleasant washes of melodic guitar feedback.
10. *(2:37)—Instrumental. Slow, striding, slightly dubby beat. Totally gorgeous chord progression and guitar melody. Triumphant slow-walk music.
11. *(1:56)—Medium-slow. Desolate guitar strumming, with pained but restrained electric guitar textures behind. A devastating and perfect way to end.