If you love Bruce Soord’s voice, then these years have been and continue to be fantastic for you. Last year saw the release of Bruce’s latest solo album, Luminescence, now The Pineapple Thief have released a delightful new album.

With their refined, atmospheric and highly rhythmic music, The Pineapple Thief have grown to be masters of contemporary rock. The new album It Leads To This only goes to underline just how great the band have become.

The beauty of the band’s music can leave you marvelling. The compositions aren’t anything near what maybe considered archetypical progressive rock: their songs are not about epic lengths, they rather tend to be compact. Singer-guitarist Bruce Soord, master drummer Gavin Harrison, bassist Jon Sykes and keyboardist Steve Kitch do not need to indulge in epic tracks of unbridled length to impress with their music.

In that brevity, the band manage to capture an extraordinary amount of atmosphere, regardless of whether a song can be interpreted as subtle or emphatically solid rocking in nature. The whole of the band must be credited for this. Bruce’s ideas flourished completely in working on the songs together. Considering that some of the ideas date back to 2020, the band put a lot of work into their latest album. And, mind you, touring guitarist Beren Matthews added vocals and guitar to the recording as well.

Songs reflecting on life, the world, history, repeating patterns from history, especially in relation to how leaders have manifested themselves over the centuries. What does the world we pass on to future generations at some point look like? A world that is polarised, remains polarised? Reflecting on this, Soord’s view is that this polarisation is not on everyone’s mind.  Rather on the contrary, he also sees hope for the world. Perhaps it’s good to realise that, for this very reason, you can also read the album’s title with a question mark.

8 songs, with the now familiar sound of The Pineapple Thief, Gavin’s ever delightful rhythms, who on this album excels precisely in his playing with rhythms and, again, fits very well into The Pineapple Thief’s sound. His presence here feels very natural and unforced, never really delving into difficult drum patterns just for the sake of it.

Bruce, as always with a natural composure in the various tracks manages to convince as much in subtle tracks like opener Put It Right as in a significantly firmer song like Rubicon. The Pineapple Thief build their songs carefully, tastefully, drivenly, with attention, refined for all instruments. That does not mean we only hear tuneful layers of keys, no, even when the guitars speak, there is a meticulousness in the way they emerge in the soundscape. Not boring, not too predictable, no, above all it is brought with attention.

Steve’s fine keys, Jon’s driving bass, Gavin’s really great parts, Bruce’s guitar and voice, yes, the whole album flows together so wonderfully and every listening session makes you discover something different. Listen to the title track, be overwhelmed by it, feel the sweep and solidity of The Frost and enjoy it as if you’ve never heard the band before.

Indeed, it is the structure of the songs, it is the flow of the album, it is the variety between all those compact songs that the band manages to capture downright fantastically. Melancholy, calmness, wonderful riffs and rhythms. That is quite strong what the band puts down here. With It Leads To This, the band surpasses itself. They add a particularly strong album to an oeuvre that took shape from Your Wilderness onwards with rhythmic grandmaster Gavin Harrison on board. From Dissolution through Versions Of The Truth, live album Nothing But The Truth, via the more than fine collection that was Give It Back to the here and now. What an amazing evolution for the band, what class!

On February 24, the band plays at De Melkweg in Amsterdam. Make sure to be there.