Music / Reviews
Review: The Pineapple Thief, Fleece
It’s been a long, slow slog for Somerset’s finest purveyors of unflashy, bittersweet modern prog. Founder Bruce Soord reminds us that the first time they played the Fleece, which he considers a hometown gig on account of there being nowhere to play in Yeovil, they pulled 20 paying punters. Fifteen years and ten albums on, the place is comfortably full. That’s partly because progressive rock carries no stigma among younger audiences, but also because the band are signed to the enterprising Kscope label – home to such higher profile kindred spirits as Anathema and Steven Wilson.
Of course, choosing to play this kind of music means you won’t get a sniff of mainstream media attention – not even a sneery slagging – even though there’s much here for Radiohead fans to enjoy and one could, at a push, rebrand it as adventurous indie rock. But unlike those Mercury Prize-nominated, NME-championed firework acts, The Pineapple Thief (it’s from a line of dialogue in Kasi Lemmons’ 1997 film Eve’s Bayou – pretentious, moi?) don’t pull a fickle audience. Each hard-won fan is in it for the duration. And a very polite, quiet and reverential lot they are too, which is something of a culture shock for those of us used to sweaty, moshing, beer-drenched metal crowds. At the conclusion of the title track of ace new album Magnolia, one enraptured chap lets out an audible sigh of joy.
Perhaps understandably, Magnolia dominates the set almost to the exclusion of its immediate predecessor, All the Wars, though we do get the magnificent epic Reaching Out, boasting the merest hint of early Genesis, and the delicate, exquisitely sad titular break-up song – which is something of a showcase for Soord’s rich, warm and expressive vocals. Magnolia’s stand-out track Simple as That picks up the pace, emphasising both the muscularity of the rhythm section of bassist Jon Sykes/recently recruited drummer Dan Osborne and PT’s commendable determination to swim against the prog tide by moving towards shorter, more concise songs. Bruce also takes the opportunity to show off the handsome signature Kingdom Soord guitar, crafted for him by Bristol’s very own Kingdom Guitars, to the delight of the guitar nerd contingent. They won’t be storming the charts any time soon (though Magnolia was, er, number 55 with a bullet), but prog’s best-kept secret is finally being shared more widely.
is needed now More than ever
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