(2020) The Pineapple Thief - Versions Of The Truth


Review:
Throughout the album, The Pineapple Thief explore vast swathes of sonic territory, with minimalist passages building to explosive crescendos and instrumentals which blend disparate elements into flowing expressionism to create an immersive dichotomy. It’s an album that holds up a mirror to the chaos and conflict of 21st-century life and tries to make sense of the distorted reflections that gaze back at it. A blurring between the real and the perceived, between meaning and intent. The title says it all: this is the soundtrack for a post-truth world. “When you have conflict, the truth gets bent and kicked around, the facts get changed,” says Soord. “That’s why people argue or get divorced or fight – because nobody can agree on what the truth is. That idea of different versions of the truth especially applies to the world we’re living in right now. All these things are happening where nobody has any idea of what the real truth of anything is because everything is so distorted.” Revealing their first single to be “Demons”, a track that combines sweeping soundscapes with infectiously pensive choruses, it is a swelling and expansive journey from subtle ambience to immersive climaxes, underscored by exotic orchestral flourishes and carried by emotive vocals. “The lyrics really speak for themselves,” explains frontman Bruce Soord. “It’s a very simple sentiment, but actually one that was quite difficult to sing when it came to it. It was one of the first songs we wrote for the new album and the emotions that fed into the track were still very raw at the time. I’d like to think writing songs like this would prove to be cathartic, but in reality those demons just don’t go away and it’s really a case of learning to live with them.” The band followed with “Break It All” “One of the darker, more sinister tracks from the album, ‘Break it All’ attempts to make sense of narcissistic destruction and the fallout”, Bruce comments. “I remember this song developed really quickly, with Gavin (Harrison) firing back new ideas that sent me off in all kinds of directions. We seem to have developed our shared musical understanding even further with this album. Sometimes I listen back and wonder where on earth it all came from.” The darkly anthemic title track, and third single – “Versions Of The Truth” opens the album and sows the seeds for what follows. Alluding to broken friendships and how the truth becomes the first casualty even in the most personal conflicts, it finds Soord approaching the subject from two opposite yet connected perspectives. “This track probably doesn’t need too much in the way of explanation,” says Soord. “I came up with the title when we started writing the record back in October 2018. At the time, the world around me seemed to be losing respect for ‘the truth’. Any version of the truth, it seemed, was fair game as long as it got you what or where you wanted. I never expected the song to be even more pertinent today.” There is a very personal undercurrent flows beneath the entire album. The haunting and nocturnal ‘Driving Like Maniacs’ paints a vivid picture of a friendship always destined to crash and burn, while the seven-and-a-half minute ‘Our Mire’ finds Soord addressing the consequences that come in the wake of a broken relationship. The themes of the album – ever-changing perspectives and malleable truths – are reflected in its artwork. An etching by the late German artist Michael Schoenholtz, it features a series of kinetic, abstract shapes that seem to reveal a different image to whoever looks at it. Gavin Harrison came across the etching just as the band were finishing Versions Of The Truth, and showed it to his bandmates. “That particular etching just seemed to resonate with me,” says Harrison. “Within five minutes we had all chosen the same image. It was the fastest selection process of a band that I’ve ever witnessed. As is often the case with modern contemporary art, different people find different meaning within it. Personally I see it as an intriguing maze that depicts the mental process of creativity. It never has straight lines.” Produced by the four members of the band – vocalist Bruce Soord, keyboardist Steve Kitch, bassist Jon Sykes and drummer Gavin Harrison – Versions Of The Truth marries a stellar musical breadth to a spectrum of emotions that run from anger and confusion to sadness and regret and even glimmers of hope. In places, the album is starkly autobiographical. In others, it confronts the chaos of modern life head-on. What has emerged stands as The Pineapple Thief’s finest album yet. It takes the creative and commercial triumphs of their last two albums, 2016’s breakthrough ‘Your Wilderness’ and its follow-up ‘Dissolution’, and magnifies them. Musically bold and lyrically thought-provoking, this is the sound of a band determined to push themselves forward.





Tracklist:

CD1:
01. Versions Of The Truth (5:40)
02. Break It All (4:23)
03. Demons (4:33)
04. Driving Like Maniacs (3:30)
05. Leave Me Be (4:14)
06. Too Many Voices (3:17)
07. Our Mire (7:27)
08. Out Of Line (4:00)
09. Stop Making Sense (3:20)
10. The Game (4:46)

CD2:
01. The Swell (Bonus Track) (4:18)
02. Break It All (Alt) (4:24)
03. Demons (Alt) (4:43)
04. Driving Like Maniacs (Alt) (3:30)
05. Leave Me Be (Alt) (4:10)
06. Our Mire (Alt) (6:57)
07. Too Many Voices (Alt) (3:40)
08. Versions Of The Truth (Alt) (5:45)


Media Report:
Genre: indie-rock, prog-rock
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits