TIGHTLY UNWOUND

This has been a number one in a chart of a Dutch progsite for many many weeks in the running year so then you start believing you're missing out on something great if you wouldn't buy it. I had one album by Pineapple Thief so far (10 stories down) and I thought it was pretty disappointing. Why I bought it ? Because I knew the band from the PA stream track Remember Us which is a nice epic and also from a Cyclops sampler song and that happened to be Variations on a Dream, a famous song by this band and also a very good song. But in the end I think I gave a sort of last chance with this album and decided if I didn't like it then this would be my last attempt.

Funny enough the first song, My Debt to you resembles Remember Us quite much at certain moments, of course this one is shorter and therefore more compact than the dragging on style of Remember Us. So this is almost a shorter version of that lengthy song. Good but not outstanding (3,25*).

Shoot first is a fairly loud one for Pineapple Thief standard. I know this band as a bit of a mellow-styled one and I'm not to keen on those in general. The quality is there nonetheless and that's why I keep giving them a try. This song is an example of the better side of PT (3,5*).

Sinners is more or less the same style as previous but in this one they remind me a bit of Radiohead, a band I respect but don't love or even like so not really a compliment from me here. Nice song but no more despite a fine instrumental part (3*).

Next is a funny sort of title track because instead of Tightly Unwound it's called Tightly Wound and since there's not a song on this album of the same name as the album, it's a sort of pseudo title track. And again it's sounding like Radiohead, especially the drumming. Still, it's a pretty energetic one, more impressive than the previous three and probably the highlight to me (3,75*). Interesting song.

The Sorry State and My bleeding Hand are two short ones, not interesting and actually quite boring to me, both hardly reaching the 3 star score in my opinion. The second of the two has some energy I have to admit but not in an impressive way.

My hopes were initially set on the two epical tracks on this album of which the over 10 minute Different World is the first. But while my hopes were high it became a disappointment, also after several listens. My experience with longer tracks are usually very good but on this album they don't even surpass the shorter songs, both compositionally as where impact is concerned. No more than 3,25* I'm afraid. The song sounds a lot like Coldplay mainly because of the vocals at some points.

And so say all of you proves the statement above because this song is no less than previous but as so many of the others nothing to give me the shivers down the spine. (3,25*)

Too much to lose was meant to be the highlight for my expectations but again not mindblowing at all and a conclusion has to be for me that despite Remember Us (from one of their earlier albums) which was obviously an exception, epics are no speciallity of these guys. 3,5* at best. Hints to Porcupine Tree in a way.

So I'm afraid the average so far (3,33) reflects very well what this is worth in my opinion. And a conclusion will have to be that I will leave the rest of their discography alone. This doesn't mean this is a poor band by any means, it's just not for me. Objectively this could even be a 4 star album for many people but check them out in the store if you don't know them I would like to suggest. Comparing them with other bands I think they are somewhere in the triangle Radiohead, Coldplay and Porcupine Tree (Stupid Dream/Lightbulb Sun era). So if you don't know Pineapple Thief yet and you like these three this could well be a band and album for you.