MAGNOLIA

UK band THE PINEAPPLE THIEF was formed back in 1999 by composer and musician Bruce Soord. Initially a self-described bedroom project, that have developed into a well defined and rather popular band as the years have gone by. "Magnolia" is their tenth studio production, and was released through UK label Kscope in the late fall of 2014.

Whenever you're dealing with a Kscope production, you know that no matter what kind of music the album contains the mix, production and overall sound quality will be excellent. This latest production by The Pineapple Thief is no exception there, those fond of well produced material in general will get their fix solved quite nicely here. The sound comes across as fairly analogue, in that it doesn't come across as compressed in the manner in which many contemporary productions may be, and the soundscapes comes across as warm sounding and organic to my ears.

As far as the music itself, the lead vocals of Soord makes certain comparisons undeniable for me. He's got a voice that in timbre and approach does have some clear similarities to Radiohead's Thom Yorke, up to and including a certain sad, mournful touch, and this aspect is dominant enough to give this entire album a slight late 90's Radiohead sheen. I might add that Soord has an excellent vocal control, and he rarely if ever have that desperate quality to his delivery that Yorke has. Yorke as a vocalist may come across as a guy that appears to be in the middle of a nervous breakdown, while Soord always sounds like he is in full control of events. So while there are similarities, especially in the songs or sequences that pairs off Soord's voice with a careful, fragile instrumental backdrop, they remain similarities of a more distant kind. Related you might say, rather than identical.

Whenever The Pineapple Thief hits a more hard edged stride, which is fairly often, the band comes across as rather more similar to the likes of Porcupine Tree. With pumping bass, driving rhythms and dark, compact guitar riffs with or without noticeable keyboard supplements, The Pineapple Thief is a band that could give Porcupine Tree a good run for the money indeed. Again it is a case of similar features and a similar approach in my opinion, related but far from identical.

Rather than exploring these two facets separately The Pineapple Thief tends to blend these two somewhat different sounding traits into a complete whole. Sometimes by pairing off these tendencies in calmer and harder edged sequences following each other, at other times by using certain aspects from both directions in a seamless whole. There are songs here that sounds more like one or the other, but the general and overall feel I get is a band that assembles aspects from both of these indie rock flavored aspects of progressive rock into a whole, and manage to do so in a manner that sounds natural and logical too I might add. Which indicates that The Pineapple Thief, rather than being a band that strives to incorporate influences from the aforementioned bands, is a band that share influences with both Radiohead and Porcupine Tree. And that it is due to this that they share certain similarities with both of these bands as far as sound and expression is concerned.

It all ads up to an enjoyable production of indie flavored progressive rock. The album as a whole comes across as on that should have a strong mainstream potential, but also a creation with enough ear candy and sophisticated features to be of interest to fans of progressive rock, and then in particular those fond of bands like Radiohead, Porcupine Tree as well as those with a general fascination for artists that approach progressive rock from an indie rock perspective.