The Pineapple Thief - 10 Stories Down (Album Review)
Thursday, 06 October 2011
Written by Ben Bland
'10 Stories Down', initially released in 2005, marks an important step in the development of Bruce Soord’s The Pineapple Thief. The first album that features the band as being just that, rather than Soord’s solo project, is a record in thrall to the artsy melancholia of mid-nineties Radiohead. Interestingly, despite the band’s frequent labelling as a ‘progressive rock’ project, this is also mostly a fairly straightforward alt-rock album.
Unfortunately it is also a record marred by deep inconsistencies. Whilst things start promisingly enough there are some serious lapses in quality only just around the corner. Where the first three songs are engaging and enjoyable, the likes of 'Start Your Descent' and 'The World I Always Dreamed of' are rather too easily forgotten. This is partly because there is not a huge amount of variety on this album. The stock sound that stays with the listener from this record is one of the acoustic guitar, usually surrounded either with dollops of strings or vaguely interesting keyboard sounds. By the time this album closes out with the overlong double header of 'I Will Light Up Your Eyes' and 'Who Will Light Up Your Eyes?' these are combinations that have long since become tiring. When the rock factor does come into play on the likes of 'Wretched Soul' and 'My Own Oblivion' it is restrained but satisfying, injecting the album with some much needed increases in pace.
Indeed, for an album that is an hour long, this sadly feels every minute by the time it is over, which is a massive shame because the strong points of this album are plenty. Soord proves himself an extremely capable songwriter on the likes of 'Clapham' and 'The Answers' and his vocals are particularly impressive, even if he does sound very, very like Thom Yorke at times. Repeated listens will allow the listener to observe that this is a band with their own personality, even if they wear their influences on their sleeve. Thankfully by the time of last year’s 'Someone Here is Missing', such influences were more expertly melted into their music. Therefore '10 Stories Down' is not essential unless a fan, but this excellently packaged reissue does allow some of Soord’s finest songs to step into the spotlight again.
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Unfortunately it is also a record marred by deep inconsistencies. Whilst things start promisingly enough there are some serious lapses in quality only just around the corner. Where the first three songs are engaging and enjoyable, the likes of 'Start Your Descent' and 'The World I Always Dreamed of' are rather too easily forgotten. This is partly because there is not a huge amount of variety on this album. The stock sound that stays with the listener from this record is one of the acoustic guitar, usually surrounded either with dollops of strings or vaguely interesting keyboard sounds. By the time this album closes out with the overlong double header of 'I Will Light Up Your Eyes' and 'Who Will Light Up Your Eyes?' these are combinations that have long since become tiring. When the rock factor does come into play on the likes of 'Wretched Soul' and 'My Own Oblivion' it is restrained but satisfying, injecting the album with some much needed increases in pace. 
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