YOUR WILDERNESS

Your Wilderness - the album, where me and my old favourite, Pineapple thief, part ways.

I am not saying the album is bad. In fact, anyone with a fancy for pop-rock or indie might find it worthwile for a listen or two. What I am saying is that this talented band, which was once retracing the footsteps of Porcupine tree's early phase with such elegance and brilliance, throwing in a fair deal of truly unique style along the way, has now ultimately drowned its talent in mediocre prog-pop sounds, with no way back.

OK, but let's look at the bright side first of having a new PT album out. There are some catchy melodies here and there built on the backbone of some good guitar work. Bruce Soord is still a decent songwriter, even if he might have reached out to the wrong corners of his playlist for inspiration this time. In any case, the songs still have a decent structure, whilst the mild guitar riffage is backed up by some some new-found, sweet orchestral arrangements. These, all in all, do result in a few semi-enjoyable songs. 'No man's land' is a listenable piece with a good build-up into a decent final, which even takes the courage to tear up the good old 4/8 time signature for a second. 'That shore', albeit cheesy to its limits, succeeds to find its way to the listener with its rather haunting atmosphere. And lastly, 'Fend for yourself' manages to disrupt the monotonness of the album with an out-of-the-blue and rather amazing solo. Most of the other songs do nothing but pull down the album into bittersweet mediocrity - even when measured against other non-progrock albums.

But I have a bigger problem, too. Even if Your wilderness is a somewhat decent listen, I am struggling to get over the fact that it comes from a band, which once gave us the haunting classics of What we have sown and Little man. No decent band is allowed the luxury of not having to experiment and venture into new musical styles once in a while - but when a band like this trades its talent in for the ever easy way of becoming an indie band (and does even that wrong), I stop to have respect for them. And this time not even my all-time fav drummer, Gavin Harrison (guest-drumming here), can save the day.

So if anyone is after a fresh, accessible delight between two heavier albums of the summer, Your wilderness might partly get the job done even through its mediocre moments. If, on the other hand, there are any fans of the band here who have been with Pineapple thief throuh thick and thin, and are still expecting something from them: do yourself a favour, and steer back to their old classics instead of dwelling into this one - you will save yourself from a sizeable disappointment.