Build a world (The Pineapple Thief) (LP 4497 - 4504)

The Pineapple Thief  All the Wars (CD, Kscope Records, 2012) ****  

The Pineapple Thief  Magnolia (CD, Kscope Records, 2012) *****  

The Pineapple Thief  Your Wilderness (CD, Kscope Records, 2016) ***

The Pineapple Thief  Where We Stood (CD/DVD, Kscope Records, 2017) ****

The Pineapple Thief  Dissolution (CD, Kscope Records, 2018) ****

The Pineapple Thief  Versions of the Truth (CD, Kscope Records, 2020) ****

The Pineapple Thief  Give it Back (Vinyl, Kscope Records, 2022) ****

The Pineapple Thief  It Leads to This (Vinyl, Kscope Records, 2024) *****

Genre: Prog rock, Prog metal

Places I remember: FOPP, HMV, JB Hi Fi

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Simple as That (Magnolia)

Gear costume: The One You Left To Die (Magnolia), The Frost (It Leads to This)

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: Bruce and the band started the new millennium in great shape following their excellent album from 2010 (Someone Here Is Missing).

All the Wars is a really confident album which develops the thrust of Someone Here is Missing. As the reviewer in Record Collector wrote - Bruce Soord's songs "aren’t mere entertainments; they’re demanding pieces, both muscular and intricate, concerned with conflicts and dislocation, charting personal battles drawn out on large canvases". 

All the Wars delivers on all fronts with some great sounding prog rock songs. The sonic landscape is as carefully considered as the lyrics.

Magnolia is even better. With some judicious editing of the songs - all are reasonably brief (none are over 6 minutes), it's a more streamlined rock sound. Ironically, that allows each song to luxuriate via the more economical songcraft and some excellent hooks. Magnolia is in many ways my go-to album by The Pineapple Thief. It's lean and mean and catchy as hell.

Your Wilderness is their eleventh studio album. The band was essentially now down to a trio (Bruce, Jon Sykes on bass and Steve Kitch on keyboards) with special guests fleshing out the instrumentation. These included Gavin Harrison (Porcupine Tree, King Crimson), John Helliwell (Supertramp), and Geoffrey Richardson (Caravan).

The resulting sound is a return to the band's sound from eight years before. That means it's far less rocky and much more introspective. I do like this side of the band, but I also like the Magnolia version and, truth be told, I actually prefer it as well.

Where We Stood is a live package - CD and DVD. The band are caught live in London on their final show of their 2017 tour. They deliver a terrific set in an intimate setting.

Their next studio album was Dissolution, again with Gavin Harrison onboard (he was also on Where We Stood).  

As the black and white cover image and the title suggests this one is looking at a dissolving world. Specifically, the subject matter concerns the dark side of social media and hyper-technology; exploring the ways in which they contribute to isolation, alienation, and the disintegration of relationships.

Although the subject matter is pretty bleak, the music isn't. Instead it is, as AllMusic summarised, 'poetic, erudite, emotionally powerful, and chock-full of musical imagination'.

Their 13th album, Versions of the Truth, maintained the stable lineup of Soord, Harrison, Kitch and Sykes and it also maintained the high quality. The theme this time is how we now live in a post truth world thanks to American politicians and leaders.

Give it Back continued the forward momentum by revisiting the past. Specifically, it means 12 new versions of  songs taken from the albums 137 to All The Wars. 

The re-recorded versions feature new  drum parts by Gavin Harrison (who wasn't in the band when those three albums were released initially). Bruce Soord also took the opportunity to tutu with song arrangements. 

It sounds superb, as you'd expect, and is nice to have (I love the cover image), but it's still a kind of holding operation during the covid lockdowns.

The final album on my list, It Leads to This, is also the band's 15th and latest - from 2024.

Bruce Soord's world view can be quite bleak and who can blame him in the 2020s. I sometimes feel that modern life is rubbish and Bruce provides the sounds to go with that sentiment. It Leads to This is superb - clear eyed (like the cover) and thoughtful. This one is up there with their best, maybe even THE best? Time will tell.

Where do they all belong? That's it for The Pineapple Thief for now. Their albums certainly deserve repeat listens as there are always new discoveries to be made. 

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.

Release the tether (The Pineapple Thief) (LP 295)

The Pineapple Thief One Three Seven (ipod, 2002) ***

Genre: Prog rock 

Places I remember: HMV Oxford St. - the day before it closed up shop, although I didn't know it at the time! Seven quid - bargain! 

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Lay On The Tracks




Gear costume:  Incubate, Doppler, How Did We Find Our Way?

Active compensatory factors: I didn't have any expectations about this - a reissue of an album that is 17 years old, as The Pineapple Thief have, of late, been all about heavier electric guitar wig outs - which I love, of course.

If this album is anything to go by, back in the day 0f 2002 when releasing their second album, they were more of a pop band, with a great acoustic guitar based song as a starter. 

Rest of the songs have hooks aplenty. There is electric guitar but the overall feel is somehow lighter here (unlike Dissolution frinstance).

Bruce Soord is TPT's main man and his vocals are a key element bringing that floaty, lighter element here. 

It's not perfect - some stylistic inconsistency along the way and about 2 to 3 songs too long.

But, all up - even though it appears to be the forgotten runt of the litter, this is very polished pop music with no real hints of difficult second album syndrome.

Where do they all belong? High water mark for me and, already - one of my favourite Pineapple Thief albums.