VERSIONS OF THE TRUTH

I have been following The Pineapple Thief since their 2012 album, All the Wars ' a stunning combination of alt-rock accessibility and progressive sensibilities (think Porcupine Tree meets Smashing Pumpkins). I bought and liked all their subsequent albums (Magnolia, Your Wilderness, Dissolution), where TPT continued to perfection their classy blend of melodic crossover prog-rock. However, I did not really love any of these albums, mostly because I found that they did not really offer too much lasting listening value: it's music that I like quite a lot when I first hear it, but that after a month is almost inevitably forgotten. Despite this, I continue to buy TPT's records, because sometimes I just want to put on a more straightforward album, which maintains the sophistication of prog without bearing its typical inaccessibility. And if it does not have long-term listening value, so be it: sometimes it is just fun to enjoy the moment. And TPT are great in delivering music achieving just that.

This long premise is to say that with their new album, Versions of the Truth, TPT have subverted my expectations about their music. This record is not as easy to approach as their previous albums. It demands more attention and perseverance because it is not an album easy to like on first listen. I think there are two main reasons for this.

First, the song arrangements have become sparser and terser. It's an album where the rhythm section provides most of the instrumental background (drums mostly, but also marimba and occasional percussions and sound effects), and even then there are lots of pauses and empty spaces in the songs. Of course, a benefit of this approach is that we can focus our attention on the sensational drumming of Gavin Harrison (Porcupine Tree, King Crimson). But this choice of arrangements also means that musically there isn't an awful lot going on and the album does come across as somewhat colorless.

Second, on Version of the Truth, TPT seem to have consciously decided to refrain as much as possible from resolving the songs using the signature melodic climaxes that have made several of their previous songs instantly likeable and easy to assimilate. On this album, the songs build and build tension without ever quite releasing it. The result is that the music feels deprived of emotions and unrelatable. Perhaps this was an intentional choice to match the bleak and grave lyrical theme of the album, but it is neverhtless a big departure from TPT's usual approach to songwriting.

These changes in sound were a surprise to me, both in a positive and negative way. They surprised me positively because I feel that, by stepping away from their tried-and-true formula, TPT have stumbled on a new, more austere but also more mature sound that could be quite interesting to develop further to see where it leads. However, and here lies the negative surprise, I am not quite sure that this album succeeds in creating something truly captivating with this new sound. Going through the album one has the nagging impression of having embarked on a voyage that is potentially exciting but does not lead yet anywhere.

There are some exceptions, of course. Most notably, the opening and closing tracks are by far the most accomplished songs on the album. The album closer, 'The Game', in particular is hauntingly beautiful, with its downcast mood that reminds me of the gorgeously depressing closer of Porcupine Tree's Stupid Dream album, 'Stop Swimming'. The rest of the album, however, falls a bit flat. In particular, the middle section of the record (after 'Demons', the only track that harks back to the classic TPT sound) contains a series of songs that alternate between angular uptempos that lack strong melodies and mellower ballads that tend to put the listener to sleep. It is quite hard to tell these songs apart from one another. You could switch them around in the tracklist and I would probably not notice, despite having listened to the album a couple of dozen times by now.

Overall, I come away from this album with mixed feelings. I liked to see the band challenging themselves with a new sound, after a string of albums that were all a bit samey. However, I was also not too impressed with what they did with this new sound on this album, as I feel they did not yet manage to use it in a way to deliver something really interesting and compelling. I will nevertheless remain interested in what TPT's next move will be, as I have hopes that they will manage to develop this new sound into something fresh and exciting.