12 STORIES DOWN

Maybe it was conceivable but I like to express my sincere condolences to the death of Pineapple Thief's last prog influences. The new Album "12 stories down" - which I pre ordered as a special edition because I was quite excited about it - features even less prog ingredients than it's antecessors, in actual fact not any. Even the mellotron is gone completely. Bruce Soord concentrates on, allowedly quite good, alternative/post rock riminiscent of former releases; with a pregnant discrepancy: he restricts to it. Whereas you could talk of slight prog influences on former releases such as "Variations on a dream" or "Abducting the unicorn" (some refused to look down on them as prog either, though) I eventually have to admit that "12 stories down" has no of these slight influences any longer.

But "12 stories down" is still a good album. Judged with different standpoints, ignoring prog, the album is absolutely felicitous. Something you like to listen to now and again, perfect for the car. I'd like to describe it with the term "slight fare"... I consider the bonus album "8 days later" to be even better. I would actually award the bonus album to be prog. It is much more diversified and provides explicitly more exciting compositions. "8 days later" is the second project of it's kind. The concept is that Bruce wrote it in just 8 days, just like "8 days", the first one.

I like to mention that I reviewed the limited edition which could be ordered at the homepage long before the official release. The official release will be remixed and contain less songs ( 4 in number) as you can read on the official homepage.

Two stars from the progressive point of view but definitely more in general. I like to add that I didn't incorporate the bonus album into my rating.

BTW - I wish you all the best for 2005!

Something has happened somewhere along the line to this band.

I've enjoyed their work up to now immensely, I've liked their progressive / post rock / indie blendings on 137 and Variations On A Dream which were both great albums, but this time, they've stripped away almost all of the progressive side of things. Now, I can understand them doing that -they've had three albums which have hardly set the world alight as far as sales figures are concerned, so if this was done to try and get wider appeal (and therefore, sales) amongst the indie/post rock crowd, then fair play.

The problem is, it's not that good an album to whet the appitites of that market. I enjoy a fair amount of that kind of stuff myself, and I've got fans who are very much more into that scene, all of whom were totally dismissive of this album. Why? In a word- Radiohead. From the cover art to vast swathes of the music, it seems like they've tried to jump on their coat tails and ride it to popularity. In short- in going for more tangiable success, they've lost their individuality.

So, it's hard to really give this a score because it doesn't work in so many areas, yet there are still flashes of a damn fine band under the surface. I would never dream of trying to tell Bruce his business or his art, but I hope he comes back with something a bit more 'Pineapple-y'.

This release is actually a collector item. The first CD is mostly represented with songs that are available on their ''10 Stories Down'' released a month later (some of them with another mix and different lyrics). This is why I will only describe the bonus CD as well as some tracks unavailable on their ''true'' effort.

As it is referenced to, this collector item is hardly impressive, unless you are a PTh frenetic. The second CD ''Eight Days Later'' was supposedly written, recorded and mixed in eight days just as the bonus disc ''Eight Days'' available on the special edition of ''Variations On A Dream''.

It mainly consists in instrumental and ambient music (''Monday August 9th'', ''Tuesday?) although the opener has more texture thanks to its vocal parts which offer a more classic PTh atmosphere while the acoustic and mellow ''Wednesday?'' is sweet, light and melancholic. But in the style, I far much prefer the nice rock ballad ''Friday?''. One of the best track IMO.

''Thursday'' starts with a harder angle, but ends up pretty much in the PT mood (I mean PT here). Repetitive riff, hypnotic beat before the last minute which is again full of wildness.

My favourite is the crescendo type ''Sunday?''. Since I quite like the crescendo structure, I am charmed by this track. Somewhat sad of course (but this a general remark for this work as a whole ? including ''12 Stories'').

The last three tracks from this CD are truly ''PTh'' compliant, especially ''Wretched Soul'' also present on their ''4 Stories Down'' EP. Actually, all these versions of this album makes it quite confusing. Too much is too much!

As an teaser, there is a cut-down version of ''Will Light Your Eyes'' as well. And to conclude, there are some unreleased tracks like ''Slip Away'', ''Watch The World'' or ''Catch The Jumping Fool''. Nothing from the other world, really. One good mention though for ''Take Our Hands''.

Two stars for this ultra long set.