Bruce Soord, the songwriter and frontman for The Pineapple Thief, has released his second solo album, All This Will Be Yours via Kscope.
An interesting mix of the personal (family life and birth) and the bigger picture (austerity and Brexit) makes for a slightly different take on recent releases from The Pineapple Thief.
Electronic textures and acoustic guitars drive the majority of the songs. The Secrets I Know works well as an opening track, with its sparse arrangement, mainly piano, guitar and layered vocals.
“Move forward at all costs
Protection at all costs
I’m already mourning your loss”
Our Gravest Threat Apart dials up the electronics, and has a naggingly addictive mantra-like outro.
All This Will Be Yours works as a complete album, with songs flowing in to one another, as two distinct pieces (replicating the vinyl experience), so you find yourself adhering to the vision of the album as a thoughtfully curated art-form, not a source of playlists to dip in and out of.
The Solitary Path Of A Convicted Man has some interesting production touches, and a memorable rhythm track, and contains the album’s first Soord guitar solo. The vocals and harmonies are especially strong on this slowly building key album track.
The title track is one of two longer songs on the album. The piano line reminds me a little of Erik Satie’s Gymnopédies when in isolation, but is soon sent to the back of the mix, as powerful psychedelic guitars and a shuffling drum pattern accompany the sirens and mood of an austerity ravaged urban landscape.
The more optimistic Time Does Not Exist reflects on the beauty of new life and new hope triumphing over the world outside, and is Soord at his most personal. The track contains a warm and evocative vocal performance that will be an album highlight for many listeners. I love the evolution in the arrangement and slightly out-of-character drum pattern that takes the song to it’s conclusion.
One Misstep is the nearest to a more traditional Pineapple Thief sound, with the ever-present sirens of modern life seeping through the mix. I love how found-sounds are almost used as instruments at times in All This Will Be Yours.
“This new darkened future, Is this who we are?”
You Hear The Voices is the longest track on the album, coming in at just under 7 minutes. Whether a lament to climate-change, or a breakdown of a relationship (physical or economic) makes no difference. Loss is painful and reverberates forever.
My favourite track on the album, You Hear The Voices builds layer by layer, with a gentle nod towards the soundscapes of the earlier collaboration with Katatonia’s Jonas Renkse on the Wisdom of Crowds.
“You can’t re-write your dreams
Or re-negotiate your terms
This is our ocean now”
A bleak, neglected cemetery is the location for Cut The Flowers, with its brutal tale of time moving on, leaving love and memories to decay and eventually disappear. A heavily distorted bass-line duels with synths and drum machines, reminding me of Mariusz Duda’s Lunatic Soul albums.
The theme of loss continues with final track One Day I Will Leave You.
“So don’t mourn my passing
I was always passing through
And I’ll always be with you”
All This Will Be Yours is book-ended by songs referencing our short time on Earth, whilst touching on the effect we have whilst we are here – either through introducing new life, or damaging what we are leaving behind for others (through our political choices or through our trashing of the planet’s resources).
The mix of the personal and the political is a brave decision, and whilst Soord makes clear his anger at the state of our world, there is optimism to be found within the songs. And like many of us, I feel maybe he sees the younger generation as the ones who can drive us away from the cliff-edge.
“This new darkened future, Isn’t who you are”
Buy Bruce Soord – All This Will Be Yours Deluxe Edition BoxSet from Amazon
Buy Bruce Soord – All This Will Be Yours on CD from Amazon
Bruce Soord – All This Will Be Yours on 180gm vinyl from Amazon
The Secrets I Know [02:24]
Our Gravest Threat Apart [04:14]
The Solitary Path Of A Convicted Man [03:44]
All This Will Be Yours [06:04]
Time Does Not Exist [03:33]
One Misstep [04:00]
You Hear The Voices [06:54]
Cut The Flowers [04:35]
One Day I Will Leave You [05:17]
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