IT LEADS TO THIS

Ever since the inclusion of Gavin Harrison as the band's drummer (about a decade ago), The Pineapple Thief have been releasing stellar albums exploring the beauty in subtlety and fragility, as their music has come to define a diligently melancholic trend in progressive rock, always with that delightful art-rock edge, brought along by the great songwriting capabilities of Bruce Soord, and his frail, soothing and shyly narrative vocal delivery, akin to the singing voice of Steven Wilson, a musician close enough to The Pineapple Thief. This latest phase of theirs has seen them release the near-perfect sorrowful excursion that is 'Your Wilderness', the tense and melodic masterwork 'Dissolution' as well as the shaky and experimental 'Versions of the Truth' and the compilation of re-recorded tracks called 'Give It Back'. Within this block of work, 'It Leads to This' from 2024 sits as a further solidification of that recognizable PT sound - nostalgic and tranquil, with the feel of gentle desperation lost amongst the ghostly chords of the subtle verses, this latest album feels like an exercise in precision and self-affirmation.

Recorded by the four-piece band including Soord and Harrison, the primary songwriters and the people responsible for the sound, structure, direction and production of 'It Leads to This', we also have the talented bassist Jon Sykes, who does a great job overall, providing smooth grooves and palpable depth to many of the songs on here, together with keyboard player Steve Kitch, with his minimal and unobtrusive "interventions" with the keys, he is the man responsible for the caressing and at times even haunting atmosphere of the album, definitely occupying a Floydian position within the band at the moment. Unlike the last few albums, this release brings along an ostensible heaviness, which might remind some of 'Your Wilderness', an album similar in spirit and structure, and in-between the roaring riffs and the mathematical drum parts, the listener shall try to breathe in the nuanced moodiness of The Pineapple Thief, as expressed in great songs like 'Rubicon', 'The Frost', 'All That's Left', 'Now It's Yours' as well as the title track - a back-to-front great collection of songs that further solidify the band's status as the kings of art rock melancholy.

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