Label: Cyclops

Tracks:

1. We Subside (4:58)
2. This Will Remain Unspoken (3:27)
3. Vapour Trails (8:31)
4. Run Me Through (4:43)
5. The Bitter Pill (4:35)
6. Resident Alert (4:14)
7. Sooner or Later (3:59)
8. Part zero (7:28)
9. Keep Dreaming (4:21)
10. Remember Us (16:04)

Musicians:

• Bruce Soord / guitars, vocals and keyboards
• Adrian Soord / mellotron, fender rhodes, prophet 5, piano, misc synths
• Nick Lang / drums and percussion
• Mark Harris / electric and acoustic basses

Guest musicians:

• Jon Sykes / bass on "Sooner Or Later"
• Liz Bramley / backing vocals on "Vapour Trails"
• Will Torrens / guitar noises on "Vapour Trails"

It's very curious how this wonderful album of Pineapple Thief, the third one of their career, has not traversed the borders of progressive rock, and therefore it has not been a piece of interest for the critics who talk about marvels of bands like Sigur Ros, Elbow, Mogwai, and even Radiohead or Coldplay. I think that "Variations on a Dream" can fit perfectly among this type of bands.

Nevertheless, I admit that Pineapple Thief is a band that can be easily considered as progressive or symphonic, though without being exactly one, thanks to certain proximity in their sound to Porcupine Tree, and to the keyboard atmospheres present in part of the album. Also other components are evident in the music of the band, like pop, alternative rock, indie music or the 80's gothic sounds of bands like The Chameleons or The Mission. And as I have said, Porcupine Tree, Sigur Ros, No-Man are, maybe, the main references to understand how this band sounds like.

But definitively, it's obvious that Pineapple Thief records for one of the most important progressive labels of the 90's, Cyclops, and practically we can only hear about this band in the main progressive websites of the net, with unsurpassable reviews certainly.

First of all, "Variations on a Dream" is an album full of delicious compositions where good taste and beauty predominate over the labels that could be put on it. Lots of keyboards, mellotrons, pianos, acoustic guitars, enough pop vocal melodies, some orchestral arrangements and soft rhythms, are Pineapple Thief's main components, at least in this album.

Basically agreeable songs, some of them longer and more elaborated. We take exquisitenesses as "We Subside" with the beauty of the string arrangements or "Vapour Trails", which perfectly would please Sigur Ros fans. Then, other more poppy songs like "This Will Remain Unspoken", the sublime "The Bitter Pill" or "Keep Dreaming", and more gothic and with 80's sound like the extraordinary "Run me Through" or "Sooner or Later". And finally, tracks more related to symphonic and progressive structures like the instrumental "Resident Alert", the aggressive "Part Zero" and specially the 16 minutes of, certainly, the best track of the album, "Remember Us", a master epic composition that flows from a beautiful pop song as a base, but does not stop of transforming and progressing.

For all the supporters of all these bands with an up-to-date sound that are in the border of progressive: do not hesitate to get this extraordinary album.

Rating: 9/10

Ferran Lizana