IT LEADS TO THIS

Ever since Steve Wilson put the Porcupine Tree on semi-retirement, its distant cousin The Pineapple Thief has firmly taken control of that particular style and not just because drum maestro Gavin Harrison moved over to fruitier pastures. Within the scope of a few months, main man Bruce Soord has released a solo album and a new chapter in the burglar's catalog, firmly stamping his creative credentials on a progressive rock current that has rarely seen as many summits as in recent years, as 2023 in particular really offered spectacular releases. Bruce is in fine form, arguably one of the better voices in prog, as well as a highly inspired guitarist and composer. The fact that his bandmates have cemented their relationship by sticking together through thick and thin, is quite revelatory and the proof is in the tangy pudding being offered up to fans of brooding, explorative and emotional prog. Eight tracks, a running time of 41 minutes and possibly their best effort yet. The set list seems like a chronological flow, at least in terms of musicality, but also lyrically.

The opening salvo "Put It Right" well, puts it just right, indeed, with a captivating lament with no hackneyed swells of over produced symphonics, quite to the contrary, a very minimalist arrangement where the two powerful stanchions are up front, namely Bruce's pleading voice and sobbing guitar, while Gavin holds down his usual 'less is more' polyrhythmic propellant , while Jon Sykes keeps the low end just right and Steve Kitch adds the needed melancholic ivory colourations.

Well, eventually things come to a point of having to take the leap of fate and cross the "Rubicon", the band boldly vaulting into an athletic maelstrom of frizzled sound, showcasing brazen guitars that pound in unison with strenuous syncopation. The platform is set to emote in muted rage, as if the fear of the unknown can galvanize anyone into anything, when properly motivated.

The title track keeps the rhythmic fricassee cooking on bubbling simmer, the guitar and keyboards infusing with each other, cavorting like long lost lovers, pretty much at the opposite end of the lyrical content which favours disillusionment over harmonious convergence. Life is a constant turmoil but eschewing the silence and express oneself is the only true relief.

"The Frost" is a back-and-forth affair between soft and hard, starting out nice and balmy, trees fluttering in the windswept bay, suddenly bullied by a sonic hurricane blast that freezes the limbs and surely the resolve. The sprightly contrasts are a perfect foil for delving into the frailty of feelings, going from incendiary to glacial, rollickingly expressed by the icy electro keyboards and freezing guitars as well as the incandescent drum performance from Mr. Harrison.

The ultra romantic "All That's Left" bathes in a crushingly beautiful melody, stylishly sung and loaded with a plethora of refined details, a first half drenched in dreamy melancholia, deeply pained, and ultimately, with a forsaken urgency that keeps rising like a thermometer dipping into a spewing volcano. The electric guitars are outright churlish, and the synth slashes cut like a finely honed razor, bleeding out agony profusely, as symbolize by the percussive droplets outro.

Generating even more inner pain, "Now It's Yours" is the longest track, running 6 minutes (if you include one second of silence), building up another sour vortex of sound and ultimate fury, but here the whirlwind takes on cyclonic proportions with a monster second half that detonates with little restraint, booming drum tangents and impetuously shameless guitars pummelling each other into abject submission. The generational passing of the baton of ongoing failure is an eternal human characteristic, it seems. So much improved technology, so little happiness. A futile relay race to hell, that finish line tape will be the end. Amazing track, though.

And what will be left behind, you may ask? "Every Trace of Us" walks the rhythmic gauntlet, with an impish bass shudder and a Peart-ian display from Gavin, as a tired Soord voice suggests a fluid sense of hopeless surrender, bordering on contempt at the immovable finality of progress. What advancement have we realized? Well, it does end suddenly ?

"To Forget" is a haunting weep, a majestic cry in the night that channels a Gilmourian outburst from the dripping guitar that wears emotions on its hand-cuffed sleeve, an overwhelmingly reflective survey of the human condition and the dysfunctional, disconnected, and desensitized standard that permeates our current society.

Easily on par with classic Pineapple Thief albums like "What We Have Sown" (2007), "Your Wilderness" (2016) and 2018's "Dissolution", proving once again that sorrow, agony, and war continue to plague our world and still providing some semblance of artistic integrity by expressing it without reserve.

4.5 never ending arrivals.

One of the staples of modern British prog, at least on the more melodic side of things, THE PINEAPPLE THIEF dates back to the turn of the millennium and is actually celebrating its 25th anniversary as a band in 2024 and just like the similarly styled Porcupine Tree who both happen to share drummer Gavin Harrison since 2016, founder / vocalist / guitarist / keyboardist Bruce Soord never expected for the band to experience such longevity. But here it is, 2024 indeed and THE PINEAPPLE THIEF is releasing its 16th album IT LEADS TO THIS featuring its usual set of alternative rock mixed with proggy art rock.

IT LEADS TO THIS hasn't found the band reinventing itself into a technical death metal band or a Tuvan throat singing band or anything of the sort. On the contrary, this newest release finds the band basically returning to form with a set of eight catchy well crafted songs that take up a running time of just under 41 minutes. There also exists a CD boxset version that includes a bonus disc titled "Y Aqui Estamos" which features seven alternate versions of the tracks found on the main album release. I always pass on these unless the album is some sort of masterpiece of the ages that i can't get enough of.

One of the more commercial bands in the world of prog, IT LEADS TO THIS doesn't even really sound like prog that much at all really. Fortified by instantly catchy hooks, traditional alternative rock compositional styles, easily digestible poetic lyrics and in the last several years, a clear race to be the next Porcupine Tree as heard with Soord's Steven Wilson mopey singing style, the similar atmospheric elements and the alternating mellow neo-psychedelic cadences with the heavier guitar oriented alternative rock bits. As far as the progressive rock creds are concerned, there aren't many to be heard on IT LEADS TO THIS as the tracks are all on the shorter side with none extending past six minutes and no surprises especially in time signature deviations to be heard.

Nevertheless the album delivers nicely performed and recoded tracks for what it does. From the mellow mope of "Put It Right" to the ambient introduced "Now It's Yours," the band is all about generating moods and atmospheres rather than winning Olympic medals for technical wizardry. While that's all fine and dandy, the album is mostly set to the easy listening side of the prog universe, so much so that it rarely finds enough of those excitable moments when the alternative rock explodes into a frenzy of crescendoing thundering roar. And even when the rock parts are allowed off their tightly held leash the band never really lets loose. Gavin Harrison is touted as one of the greatest drummers of the modern age with gigs in not only Porcupine Tree but truly demanding acts like Dizrhythmia or King Crimson but on IT LEADS TO THIS he is woefully forbidden to cut loose.

THE PINEAPPLE THIEF has never really been my bailiwick as i tend not to follow these bands that pander to pop audiences that want to claim they're into progressive rock. Add to that i've never been keen for bands jumping on the Porcupine Tree copycat bandwagon as i've found none of them to come even close to the magnanimous heights of Steven Wilson's baby but that doesn't stop many from trying. It just doesn't seem to work outside of the original PT context. This is basically pop rock with a slight alternative edge and pseudo-prog creds mainly because of the atmospheres.

It's a pleasant enough album as the music is totally listenable but a bit too predictable and squeaky clean for my liking. In a genre that used to "progress" and undergoing unthinkable evolution (just look at the years from 1969 to 1974), there are pockets of the prog fringes that are all about milking it for all it's worth. There's a reason bands like Black Midi are the newest rage because they PROGRESSED! This just sounds like it's stuck in a time warp and can't get out. Decent but not anything i get excited about. Obviously there's an audience for this stuff or THE PINEAPPLE THIEF wouldn't be around all these years but what really surprises me is how easily fans will accept a stylistic approach that is so close to another pioneer and musically almost identical.

After the uneven "Versions of the Truth", progressive veterans The Pinneaple Thief have returned with an album worthy of their legend!

Once again released by Kscope and produced by the group itself, this time they bring us an album that follows in the somewhat more direct and hooky wake of "Dissolution", and that although it does not reach the quality of this one, it does manage to offer a resounding album, very well composed and in which almost nothing is left over or missing.

As always, highlight the enormous work of Gavin Harrison on the drums, perhaps a little more restrained but just as effective, and the addition of Beren Matthews on the guitars, who is a very talented guitarist who has also accompanied them on tour for a few years now, and who can almost be considered the fifth member of the group.

So if you somehow lost faith in The Pinneaple Thief with "Versions of the Truth", I invite you to listen to "It Leads to This", because without a doubt it is going to become one of the best British progressive albums of 2024.

Best Tracks: Put It Right (I love the interlude of the song, which almost reminds me of Massive Attack), It Leads to This (a song with a lot of hook), The Frost (intimate and intense, pure The Pinneaple Thief), Now It's Yours (the slowest song on the album, but also one of the best) and Every Trace of Us (my personal favorite on the album, very intense and with an amazing instrumental section)

My Rating: ****

"It Leads To This" is the latest THE PINEAPPLE THIEF offering released in 2024. This is a band who just has not stopped the last seven years, even during the pandemic they may have been the most active band out there. Their last album "Versions Of The Truth" was a solid record but I like this one better. It's so old school here for Bruce and the boys with all the tracks ranging between 4 1/2 to 6 minutes and almost all the music is mid-paced. But it's how they contrast sections and change things up that makes this work. Those trippy passages, the heaviness or the experimental bits all work as contrasts to the melodic and mostly mellow music provided here. I really like this record.

It's pretty cool in the liner notes to see seven pictures of what is supposed to be the same person from when he is a boy all the way to being an old man. A gradual process. This is such a consistent record maybe the most consistent of their whole catalogue. Picking a top three would be hard but the one song I seemed to resonate with the most was "All Thats Left" the way it starts out like a whisper to shouting as it were later on.

I have been on THE PINEAPPLE THIEF bus for almost 20 years. When Gavin came on board for the album "Your Wilderness" I think it was like catching lightning in a bottle. With Bruce's already emotional lyrics, then bringing in a world class drummer to the fold, well that first album with him will always be my favourite. The live tour that followed gave us "Where We Stood" a top three for me and again this is an inspired band right here saying look at us now! And how about the wordless vocals from Bruce so unique to those two albums. My top three would also include "Little Man" from 2006 which encapsulates all that went before with some of their best songs and emotion to burn here.

Yes time to get off the bus, it's time. I do recommend this one quite highly though if your already a fan.