The Pineapple Thief Someone Here is Missing Review by Gary Hill
I’m amazed at the quality of music coming out in 2010. This album is another that’s likely to make my best of the year list when it comes time. It’s such a great combination of musical styles. It’s all delivered in a majestic and evocative way. This disc should definitely please all fans of modern progressive rock. I’d say that prog purists, if they just open their minds a little, will find this to be an exceptionally potent album, too.
This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2010 Volume 4 at lulu.com/strangesound.
Track by Track Review
Nothing At Best
A tapping motif leads us out here and the cut builds from there. It turns quite hard edged for a time and then drops to a more powered up version of the opening arrangement. This is cool. They work it through a number of changes in a killer musical journey. This is prog, but also catchy.
Wake Up The Dead There’s a more stripped down approach to this. It feels a bit like Porcupine Tree or modern Marillion. It’s perhaps less prog and more alternative rock, but it’s still quite tasty. We’re taken later into a harder rocking motif that’s more like modern Radiohead.
The State We're In The first portion of this doesn’t differ greatly from the previous track. There is a killer movement later, though, that’s got a definite classic progressive rock element woven into the mix.
Preparation For Meltdown The idea here is similar to the last track. This starts off with the Radiohead inspired modern rock that started the last piece. As it continues they shift out to this incredible progressive rock arrangement. I’d label this piece as my favorite to this point. It drops back later to a mellower section that is dark, but also amazing. Eventually they pound back out in a hard rocking motif. It gets quite noisy in a way that calls to mind modern King Crimson. It gets stripped way down before it ends.
Barely Breathing A pretty balladic approach leads off here and this reminds me a bit of Pink Floyd mixed with Porcupine Tree. There are some hints of classic pop rock, too – groups like Bread. As this powers up the Pink Floyd element is even more prominent.
Show A Little Love A killer funky riff starts this off. The cut shifts out to more melodic and intricate progressive rock from there. We get a return to the funk stylings before they power it out into some serious metal. From there it drops back to an electronic kind of motif that’s like a more progressive rock oriented Depeche Mode. They return to the earlier melodic prog. This piece continues to evolve as other musical elements join and the previous ones are reworked.
Someone Here Is Missing The general concepts aren’t changed a lot, but this is one of the strongest pieces on show here. It moves between a lot of varied musical motifs in an arrangement that’s extremely powerful. This turns towards what a lot of prog purists would consider metal at times, but it’s also beautiful. It’s got a lot of emotion packed within. This is just such a great piece of music.
3000 Days Another amazing piece of music, this works through the same familiar series of music modes as the rest of the disc. It just does it in a new way. It’s pretty and powerful. It rocks out at times and takes us into mellow areas at other points. This is just another example of why this band is so good.
So We Row They saved the best for last. This is a cut of epic proportions. It beautiful, complex and powerful. There are points that make me think of Genesis and other spots that call to mind Led Zeppelin and yet, it’s all very recognizable as The Pineapple Thief.
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