Pineapple Thief - 4 Stories Down

Home Artist links Label link

Pineapple Thief - 4 Stories Down

Artist:	Pineapple Thief
Title:	4 Stories Down
Label:	Cyclops CYCL
Length(s):	minutes
Year(s) of release:	2005
Month of review:	[07/2005]

Line up

Bruce Soord - guitars, vocals, keyboards, samples, programming
Adrian Soord - mellotron, fender rhodes, prophet 5, piano, synths
Nick Lang - drums, percussion, backing vocals
Mark Harris - bass

Tracks

1)	Clapham	4.28
2)	Wretched Soul	4.54 MP3
3)	The Ground Floor	4.58
4)	Subside (13th Floor Mix)	7.03

Summary

Pineapple Thief and Vulgar Unicorn have been making a name, whilst being extremely productive. This is an EP that was released incident with the album 10 Stories Down.

The music

Clapham builds on the popularity of Keane and the like: melancholic pop with plenty of piano, and alternation between soft and fuller moments. The song is rather easy going and there is nothing in the music that prevents it from becoming a hit single. Unfortunately, this is no guarantee at all.

Wretched Soul is more in the vein of Muse and maybe a bit of Underworld: hard-edged, a bit rawer and a bit more rhythm oriented. The middle part for instance is quite hard-hitting, harder than I have ever heard the band be, a bit harder than even most metal bands I know: the sound is really harsh on this one (even if they offer us a breather now and then), but it does come over well. Yes, the description Muse quite covers it.

The Ground Floor is a slow builder, with music building up, and then taking a step back again. There is something quirky about the song, but it also has the abundant vocal harmonies we have come to expect from the band. A rather catchy tune, but not as strong as the average Pineapple Thief song.

Subside which was one of the high points of the previous album is present in a lengthy 13th Floor Mix. The song has elements of the dreamy side of No-Man. The melody is wonderful, the song is full of reverberating sounds evoking sunlight dispersed by glass. A hallucinating experience.

Conclusion

Well, this is certainly different from the previous Pineapple Thief. For this EP at least, the band has moved into more commercially viable territory, taking elements of Keane and Muse and adding some of their own of course. Whether this will bring them the success they probably would not mind having is something that will become apparent, obviously.