Versions of the Truth The Pineapple Thief

• 1 Versions of the Truth 05:40
• 2 Break It All 04:22
• 3 Demons 04:34
• 4 Driving Like Maniacs 03:30
• 5 Leave Me Be 04:14
• 6 Too Many Voices 03:17
• 7 Our Mire 07:27
• 8 Out of Line 04:00
• 9 Stop Making Sense 03:21
• 10 The Game 04:46
• Total Runtime 45:11

Info for Versions of the Truth

The Pineapple Thief have announced their new album, ‘Versions Of The Truth’, scheduled for release on September 4th and have begun to share their new tracks & videos with fans.

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.

The Pineapple Thief

In April 2008 The Pineapple Thief launched the Kscope label with the critically acclaimed album, Tightly Unwound.

While the album was many people’s introduction to the band they have actually spent the past ten years quietly building up a dedicated fan base across the globe, nurturing their ‘bittersweet’ progressive sound.

Initially a solo outlet for Bruce’s music the first album, Abducting, was released on Cyclops Records in May 1999. The critical plaudits and small but fanatical fan base that grew around the release was enough to convince Bruce that perhaps TPT was here to stay and he returned to the Dining Room studios to work on the second TPT album, 137. Following the reaction to its release in the spring of 2002 and the growing demand from fans for live shows, Bruce felt the need to expand TPT to a full band. The band consisted of his close musical friends - former university band mate Jon Sykes on bass, Wayne Higgins on guitars, Matt O'Leary on keyboards and Keith Harrison on drums. Wayne and Matt have since left but Steve Kitch (who co-produced and mixed the albums since 10 Stories Down) has joined to replace Matt and play the keyboards.

The third album, Variations On A Dream (2004) gave TPT a further boost, reaching out to yet more people all over the world. Three albums followed, 10 Stories Down (2005), Little Man (2006), and limited the run What We Have Sown (2007) which featured re-worked un-released tracks. This was to prove to be the last album released via Cyclops before the band signed to Kscope and released Tightly Unwound. This was followed by The Dawn Raids Eps and 3000 Days, a 2CD re-mixed and re-mastered collection of songs from their ten year history so far.

The band return in May 2010 with their new album "Someone Here Is Missing".

The album also features artwork by the legendary designer Storm Thorgerson, who is famous for creating some of the most recognisable artwork of the last 30 years including albums by Pink Floyd (Dark Side Of The Moon, Division Bell, Pulse), Muse, Led Zeppelin, Biffy Clyro and many more.

This album contains no booklet.