YOUR WILDERNESS

'Your Wilderness' from 2016 marks a general shift in the musical vocabulary of The Pineapple Thief, with the band experimenting with a silky-smooth production style and a rather minimalist alt-rock approach, developing a recognizable sound that borders on the acoustic, and centers around that elegiac, melancholic atmosphere that we have come to recognize the band for recently. This album also marks the first appearance of Gavin Harrison behind the drum kit, here only as a session musician, with other guests coming from Supertramp and Caravan and working on the clarinet and string arrangement parts of the album. This is an interesting album because it becomes so difficult to categorize it - the prevailing feel is that of melancholy, and the record is quite pensive and monotonous, gentle and atmospheric, almost to the point of having no recognizable or memorable melodies.

Undoubtedly the focus here is on the guitars, the drums and the vocals, and while some of the singing and the arrangements might seem infectious, beautiful and moving (don't forget about the scarce but acute use of the string arrangements as well as the punctuating Mellotron, which is to be heard on several occasions here), 'Your Wilderness' doesn't really deviate at all from the well-known formula of The Pineapple Thief, which kind of renders it less characteristic and less memorable. Yet this remains one of the band's more consistent and accessible albums, objectively considering its strengths, which is arguably why it has been seen as a general success. Notwithstanding, this record has given us some really fine songs, like the desperately astounding opener 'In Exile', the cryptic and semi-acoustic 'No Man's Land', the more eclectic and moodier 'Tear You Up' as well as the enjoyable numbers 'Take Your Shot' and 'Fend for Yourself'. All in all, an improvements in terms of songwriting, production and coherence compared to some of the preceding releases of the band is at place, which makes this an important step towards the magnificent work that is the near-perfect album 'Dissolution'.

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