NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH

I've had quite the journey with this band and with Bruce Soord in particular over the years. One of my earliest reviews on here from 2006 was Bruce's first band VULGAR UNICORN. He created PINEAPPLE THIEF as an artistic outlet combining the style of VULGAR UNICORN with PORCUPINE TREE who he was a fan of. Remember the Cyclops label? I have a couple of sampler cds from them which always included PINEAPPLE THIEF it seems. Now on K-Scope they really have reached their potential in my opinion starting with "Your Wilderness" my favourite from them. It was a little disappointing to see only two songs from "Your Wilderness" on here especially when "All The Wars" an album I'm not big on has two tracks and it's from 2012. We also get one older song in "Wretched Soul" from "10 Stories Down" which is a 2005 recording.

I have to give props to whoever put the packaging together as we get this uniform look throughout the liner notes and front and back covers with that gold and brown motif. It's all so professionally done. I feel Soord is one of the best song writers in Prog and especially in dealing with some of the tragedies in his life, his inspiration for many of his lyrics. But he has a way of writing tasteful lyrics with witty sayings and he has his own style for sure. I like how he often says one thing followed by an opposite saying sometimes twisted but he makes me think. Besides the inspiration he has for his lyrics the addition of Gavin Harrison was huge for the instrumental parts. He added some much needed "life" in my opinion to the point that we have the perfect storm when it comes to this band and "Your Wilderness" was the result.

Honestly I'm just catching up now with the last 4 years of music from 2018 to 2021 as I got a forced break you could say so it's been fun going over the last 4 years and picking up 24 records recently including this one trying to do some catchup. My first thoughts on listening to this recording was how poppy some of this was. Not being familiar with some of the newer songs I was surprised at this direction. Not happy but I must admit after about three listens my opinion changed as I feel I have become addicted to a lot of these tracks. Still I could not go more than 4 stars with the rating despite the absolute highs we get on this double disc. We get seven tracks from "Versions Of The Truth" including the only bonus track on here that's from that album called "The Swell". Three tracks from that record are in my top eight tracks from this live recording including the opener "Versions Of The Truth" with those contrasts. Also "Our Mire" is one I connected with right away and "Break It All" the closer on disc one. The latter reminds me of Steven Wilson. My favourite from disc one is "In Exile" from "Your Wilderness" and the other track I rate highly from this disc is "Build A World" from "All The Wars" and at least we don't have all that orchestration on it like from the studio album.

Disc two isn't as strong in my opinion but my favourite track is the other tune from "Your Wilderness" called "The Final Thing On My Mind" the closer. So freaking good! Still blows me away. The other two tracks from disc two that standout are the opener "White Mist" from "Dissolution" which is so uplifting. This and the closer I just mentioned are the two longest songs by far on this recording. "Threatening War" also from "Dissolution" is my final top 8 track. I love the lyrics.

A solid 4 stars is what this has grown into for me. It's been an interesting week spinning this one and getting back into that PINEAPPLE THIEF mood while doing some catching up.