The Pineapple Thief – Hold Our Fire: Album Review

By Mike Ainscoe on 30th November 2019 • ( Leave a comment )

Release Date: 15^th November 2019

Formats: CD, DL, vinyl

Success breeds success. Building on the triumph of Dissolution and a flowering solo career, Bruce Soord and his men make the most and bring us a live album that’s worth it’s salt. Bearing in mind Where We Stood provided a record of the 2017 Your Wilderness tour, Hold Our Fire is an album that essentially gives us live versions of all bar one of the Dissolution tracks. While the title may suggest a hint of holding back, there’s no element of that in their live performance.

It’s an affirmation that The Pineapple Thief have found their feet and form having toyed with (a) a more progressive bent and (b) the commercial appeal of shorter, direct material in their career that began in earnest in 2002. The last two albums, Your Wilderness and Dissolution have seen the dedication pay off. Together they provide a Narnia-like gateway to the world of The Pineapple Thief, although Hold Our Fire is without question about the now.

Many have seen the recruitment of Gavin Harrison as the catalyst which may be true to a point, but with his track record, the fact that he’s taken up with The Pineapple Thief is testament to their status. He’s been labeled as the modern King Midas – everything he plays on turns to gold. Fair comment but combined with the emergence of the not inconsiderable talent of Bruce Soord and the drive they bring to a band that boasts Steve Kitch and Jon Sykes, no mugs themselves, there may well lie the key factor.

So the album is a pretty faithful run through, juggling the track order ever so slightly with Try As I Might elevated to set opener, slow and brooding and into Threatening War they keeps us waiting for the chance to finally let off steam. All the way through to the ten minutes of White Mist which, despite its length, passes quickly and doesn’t outstay its welcome and then the tranquility of Shed A Light, the latter almost a segue point into Soord’s own All This Will Be Yours solo album.

Almost a teaser, the fizzing modern rock spark of an incendiary 3000 Days from their 2010 album Someone Here Is Missing is a brief reminder that for all their recent acclaim, The Pineapple Thief have been making great music for some time. There was life long before Dissolution and a whole back catalogue to appreciate. A good way to waste a precious life.

Listen to Threatening War from the album here: