San Francisco’s most reliably melancholic pop poet has done it again. The Reds, Pinks & Purples — the prolific indie pop project led by singer-songwriter Glenn Donaldson — have released their new album, Acknowledge Kindness, today via Fire Records. It’s the ninth full-length in just six years from a songwriter who seems incapable of writing a boring chord change, and it might be the most emotionally exposed thing he’s put his name to yet.

Where previous Reds, Pinks & Purples records leaned into the heavier, jangling melancholia that earned Donaldson easy (and entirely earned) comparisons to The Go-Betweens, American Music Club, and the Smiths at their most morose, Acknowledge Kindness pulls back the curtains a little. Chiming acoustic guitars and achingly pretty piano lines drift through arrangements that feel both more spacious and more lush, with Donaldson’s hushed, reedy vocals doing what they’ve always done best: smuggling sharp, wistful little daggers inside the softest possible sonic textures.

“I worked on this record for eight months,” Donaldson says, “trying to get the arrangements just right while keeping the feelings at the core of it; it became a stream of consciousness, inspired by pulling out terrible old journals, reading poetry paperbacks, listening to devastating records, walking through the park getting stoned while staring at flowers, and just trying to take it over the top in general.” Mission accomplished, frankly.

The album was previewed by a string of singles, including the gorgeous “Houses” and the album’s emotional centerpiece “New Leaf” — a song that Raven Sings the Blues called “a turning point for The Reds, Pinks & Purples,” noting how “the jangles fade into the background, replaced by clouded atmospheres, the pluck of strings, and a soft cascade of keys.” It’s the sound of a writer who’s been steadily refining the same emotional dialect for a decade finally letting a bit more light in without losing any of the ache.

Watch the official video for “New Leaf” here: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=The+Reds+Pinks+and+Purples+New+Leaf

Thematically, Donaldson describes Acknowledge Kindness as a record “about learning to live with your ghosts and trying to be alive in the present.” He name-checks California by American Music Club and 16 Lovers Lane by The Go-Betweens as touchstones — “works that steer into the pain but become a transportational device for the listener.” That’s a high bar to set for yourself, but on tracks like “Heaven of Love,” “Blue Heron Lake,” “Worthy of Love,” and the title track, he clears it without breaking a sweat.

The full tracklist for Acknowledge Kindness:

1. Is it you, or is it them?
2. Heaven of Love
3. Emo Band
4. New Leaf
5. Houses
6. Blue Heron Lake
7. Worthy of Love
8. Doubt in Vain
9. Where Did I Go Last Night?
10. Build Love
11. Acknowledge Kindness

Donaldson and his band will mark the release with a special hometown show at San Francisco’s 4 Star Theater on Wednesday, April 29, supporting American Moon and Mo Dotti. Additional tour dates are reportedly on the way. Given that previous Reds, Pinks & Purples runs have included Pitchfork Music Festival London, Woodsist Festival, and support slots with Destroyer, Guided By Voices, and The Feelies, you’d be forgiven for clearing your calendar early.

Acknowledge Kindness is out now on Fire Records. Stream it, buy it, sit with it in a quiet room — it’s that kind of record.