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Review Summary: Dynamic and emotional, Magnolia is one of The Pineapple Thief’s most diverse and surprising achievements. The Pineapple Thief haven’t wanted to be a progressive rock band for some time now. The recent half of their discography has been heightening the alternative rock influence and lessening the length of their epic tracks. This makes for an ever pervading flirtation with a more mainstream sound, which is culminated with Magnolia. There is also the bold absence of any long tracks or the possibility of buildups and epic crescendos. Varied and diverse instrumentation is wholly present despite the more streamlined songwriting approach. It mostly works in the album’s favor, despite the absence of a big finale. While predecessor All The Wars' ultimate success was largely due to its incredible 10-minute closer, their follow-up has no such strength to fall back on. The question becomes, can their ever-evolving songwriting aptitude for quick, catchy tunes (their most yet with two or three minute songs) still maintain their emotional impact? The one two punch of album opener "Simple As That" and "Alone At Sea" should be answer enough. With subtle guitar lines over the quiet verses and Bruce Soord’s pleading vocals soaring over the pounding rhythms and grooving chorus riffs, The Pineapple Thief continues moving into heavier territory while keeping their signature emotive atmosphere. Impressively, most of the tracks follow this formula, frequently transitioning from subtlety to breakneck energy with no warning.
One of the strongest aspects of Magnolia is the strength of the ballads, besides the lyrically inept "Don’t Tell Me." "Magnolia," "Seasons Past," and album closer "Bond" are album highlights thanks to soaring synths and the strength of Soord’s emotional vocals. There are a few clear-cut ballads, as most tracks constantly change tone and dynamics even within the shorter two-minute songs. Surprisingly nothing about Magnolia ever feels bloated or unwarranted, exhibiting just the right amount of restraint while never descending into melodrama. Almost as good as the ballads are the heavier tracks, which blend in with the lighter songs seamlessly. Even the most aggressive tracks like "The One You Left To Die," "Breathe," and "A Sense of Fear" end up conveying a good deal of emotion and power, comprised of constantly shifting dynamics between light and heavy. Ultimately the dynamic tracks end up being one of Magnolia’s biggest triumphs, never losing sight of its vision or purpose.
The Pineapple Thief were never the most original rock group, but this finds them settling into a comfortable niche of accessible alternative rock conveying all spectrums of their past and their usual talent for emotional punches. Interestingly most of these tracks sound like they could come straight from a mainstream rock radio station. Accessibility never seemed like a major concern for them, and for now their current presence in the new prog world seems fitting. “[A]ll I care about now is writing a good song; I don’t think about whether it’s rock or progressive or commercial or anything like that,” Soord explained in a recent interview. Magnolia is The Pineapple Thief’s statement that they don’t care about genres or expectations, that they just want to make the best music they can and transcend listener expectations. The the presence of a prog rock epic in the vein of “Reaching Out” is missed, this latest release is an appropriate statement for where the band is at this point. Those looking for the emotional journey of 2006's Little Man or the heavy licks of more recent releases will be pleasantly surprised to find some of everything and more in Magnolia.
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Album Rating: 3.5
Here's the stream:
http://classicrock.teamrock.com/news/2014-09-10/exclusive-stream-the-new-pineapple-thief-album
Constructive criticism welcome as always.
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
Just realized this is my 20th review, party
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Wow, didn't expect you to review this.
Anyway, good review, especially the last paragraph. It sums the whole album up very nicely. Posd
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
Thanks Choccy I felt like this needed a counter opinion to Irvings despite liking his and actually agreeing with a lot of what he says, especially about the lyrics. Honestly I'd probably rate this around a 4.2, I debated giving it a 4.5. It grows with each listen so maybe I will...
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
Really great review man, fitting for a 20th. Pos'd. Glad to see someone did a counter review, maybe I won't have to any more! Surprised at your rating though, this is a weak 3.5 for me. Can't get past the atrocious lyrics, brings everything down
"All The Wars ultimate success was largely due to its incredible 7-minute closer"
Small thing - Reaching Out is just shy of 10 minutes long
"Surprisingly nothing about Magnolia ever feels bloated"
While this is a good thing, I feel like they're trying too hard not to be bloated, some tracks don't even last long enough to do anything which makes some feel pointless, one of my quarrels
"Almost as good as the ballads are the heavier tracks"
IMO TPT have done much better ballads already than on this, my favourites are for sure the heavier tracks, this album must have their heaviest moments
"The Pineapple Thief were never the most original rock group"
I agree with you there, but still gotta say, Little Man has some pretty unique-sounding stuff eh
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Great review. Posd.
of its vision or or purpose.
At the end of the second paragraph though.
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
Deathschool duuuude awesome dig! Thumpermonkey are brilliant, I added em to the database a while ago
Damn realised how long my previous comment is
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Yeah, dude. They're fantastic. Probably the closest thing to a modern day King Crimson there is, but they also have their own flavor of course.
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
Thanks guys, errors fixed.
Despite what I said they're definitely a unique band, and Little Man is their best and most original for sure. I just heard a lot of external influences from their last few albums, and this seems to be an attempt to strive for a more original vision which I appreciate. Someone Here Is Missing is about on par with this though, still love that one.
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
Death - make sure you check Sleep Furiously, it's probably their best. Bring Me The Sun For Breakfast is also awesome. There's definitely a King Crimson-ness to them, with some ATD-I and Mars Volta in there as well. Still, they're very unique
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Great review, I'll have to give it a listen. Pos.
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
Happy to see a more positive review of this album. Nice work!
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
Excellent review Talons, I agree with most of what you said, and although I don't dig it as much as you,
there's a lot of great tracks here and enjoyable elements. Without the 3 or 4 fillers this could definitely
be a 4 for me too.
I know I've already said that, but apart from its lyrics, Don't Tell Me is an awesome song in my opinion
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finally got round to trying this, its sounding pretty good so far
| | | Album Rating: 2.6
Can't get past the atrocious lyrics, brings everything down
As My Bloody Valentine once said, "there's nothing worse than bad lyrics."
| | | Album Rating: 2.6
Also, I did a quick skim through and this review, while fairly written, could use a lot of tightening-up:
This ever pervading flirtation with a more mainstream sound culminates with Magnolia, along with the noticeable absence of any long tracks and the possibility of buildups and epic crescendos.
This is practically a run-on sentence. However that is easily fixed by putting everything after the coma after "mainstream sound" (and fixing all the verb agreement issues that result, obviously).
While All The Wars ultimate success
Missing a possessive here.
subtelty
Spelling error.
One of the strongest aspects of Magnolia is the strength of the ballads, besides the lyrically inadept Don’t Tell Me. Magnolia, Seasons Past, and album closer Bond end up being album highlights thanks to soaring synths and the strength of Soord’s heartaching vocals.
Another run-on sentence.
There’s few clear-cut ballads
Quantity/article agreements.
This:
One of the strongest aspects of Magnolia is the strength of the ballads
Combined with this:
Even the most aggressive tracks like The One You Left To Die, Breathe, and A Sense of Fear end up being just as emotional and powerful as the softer ones, comprised of constantly shifting dynamics between light and heavy. This ends up being one of Magnolia’s biggest triumphs, never losing sight of its vision or purpose.
Really weakens both arguments simultaneously. So which one is Magnolia's biggest triumph/success then? You just said it was A, and now you're saying it might just end up being B. Gotta be a bit more decisive.
There are a lot more, but this should be enough to keep you going for now. Do a proof-read for the rest. Also, protip: italics are done by writing [i ]INSERT WORD HERE [/i ] without the spaces. Use this for album titles - much more elegant and less confusing that way.
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
Thanks Irving, that helped a lot and I will keep editing. I've always had a problem with run-on sentences and never really knew how to refer to albums or punctuation when talking about them. Hopefully this album will grow on you over time, it certainly did for me.
| | | Album Rating: 2.6
Believe me, I've really tried to make it grow on me (I've had the promo for a very long time now), but I honestly believe that the album is simply not very good. I've heard much better music of a similar genre from other bands, and I can't make it through five minutes of Soord's lyrics without wincing.
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