Remember us (The Pineapple Thief) (LP 4490 - 4496)

The Pineapple Thief  One Three Seven (CD, Kscope Records, 2002) *** 

The Pineapple Thief  Variations on a Dream (CD, Snapper Music, 2003, released 2023) *** 

The Pineapple Thief   Little Man (CD, Snapper Music, 2003, released 2023) *** 

The Pineapple Thief   What We Have Sown (CD, Kscope Music, 2007) ****

The Pineapple Thief   Tightly Unwound (CD, Kscope Music, 2008) ****

The Pineapple Thief   Someone Here Is Missing (CD, Kscope Music, 2010) ****

The Pineapple Thief   3000 Days (CD, Kscope Music, 2009) ***

Genre: Prog rock

Places I remember: FOPP, HMV

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Nothing at Best (Someone Here is Missing)

Gear costume: Shoot First (Tightly Unwound)

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6; Part 7

Active compensatory factors: Back in February 2019 I wrote about One Three Seven in the countdown as album #295. For the sake of completeness, I've included it here again, but not counted it. Given Bruce Soord plays and sings everything on it - it's a remarkable album and worth rediscovery.

Anyway, it's time for another multi-post approach for The Pineapple Thief as I have a lot of albums by this fine band. First up - the 2002 to 2010 albums.

The origins of Bruce Soord's The Pineapple Thief are similar to Steven Wilson's Porcupine Tree, in that each band started out as a solo venture by their principal songwriters and morphed into actual bands.

In the case of The Pineapple Thief, after three albums (including One Three Seven and Variations on a Dream), Bruce Soord is joined on Little Man by Jon Sykes on bass, Wayne Higgins on guitar, Matt O'Leary on keyboards, and Keith Harrison on drums.

First though - Variations on a Dream, and in some ways, I find it tough to distinguish between it and One Three Seven. It's like they are a double album in my head. Both are very confident, accomplished albums. During both, it is amazing to think that it's the work of one guy.

Little Man is the first band album and it's a much rockier outing in some ways. The familiar Bruce Soordisms - lyrical passages with almost dream pop like vocals, are still a welcome presence. The lingering feeling of Bruce plus friends persists with the album though.

What We Have Sown was his/their sixth album. It's a kind of strange one as they released the album as a thank you to the label they were leaving and it also served as a clearing of the decks before joining Kscope as the songs were held over from previous releases, mostly Little Man outtakes.

That doesn't mean that it's a lesser album in any way as the band fully charge into these songs. Clearly it was a beneficial exercise and necessary for a fresh start with the next album - Tightly Unwound.

The album presents all of the band's strengths - some blistering prog rock guitars amid the dream pop interludes. My copy has a bonus disc of outtakes and acoustic versions which continue to deliver on those strengths.

Someone Here Is Missing from 2010 was the first album that I bought by The Pineapple Thief. I'd been impressed by a song on a Prog Magazine sampler and found this album in FOPP on a visit to London in 2011.

This one is more metal prog than their previous albums. It's a heavy sounding album and I loved it then and I love it now. It's massive!

Where do they all belong? Three Thousand Days is a compilation that covers their first ten years from 1999 to 2009. It's a worthwhile collection for me as it has material from albums I don't have - like their debut in 1999 - Abducting the Unicorn and Ten Stories Down (2005). There are also some alternate takes and alternate mixes that are of interest.

The next post completes the second half of my collection with The Pineapple Thief albums from 2012 to 2024.