The Pineapple Thief – The Soord Sessions Volumes 1-4 (Deluxe Edition) (2021) (****)

What’s to like?

Lockdown-friendly set of live performances streamed by The Pineapple Thief’s Bruce Soord last year, collected into an excellent book/cd set which captures the intimacy of an acoustic set being performed in your own living room. Highly recommended for fans of the band.

The low down

When the chips are down, always count on the ingenuity of artists to reshape and reinvent their work. Such has been the case with Pineapple Thief man Bruce Soord, with the release of this four disc set of acoustic sessions he streamed from his studio last year.

Having released the Pineapple Thief album Versions of the Truth just as we went into lockdown last year, plans to tour the album went out the window. (You can read my review of that album here.) So with the sudden downtime, Soord decided to try his hand at performing an online streamed set from his studio, with just himself and an array of guitars, keyboards and his trusty looper (for added layers and delay effects).

It was very much dipping a toe in the water for Soord, but the online feedback after the performance was so positive that he ended up doing three further sets, based on song requests submitted by fans. As you might imagine, the fans asked for a mixture of popular numbers and deep cuts rarely played live.

So Soord had to dig back through his twenty years’ worth of Pineapple Thief material and his two solo albums, and in some cases re-learn songs he hadn’t played for the longest time. The idea being to give songs never previously performed live a new lease of life, and offer paying fans something worth their cash to view the live stream.

Given that the four sessions were also recorded, it’s not surprising that they’ve been pressed to cd and made available for a wider audience to enjoy, while helping to support an artist during these fallow times. And given the relatively low costs involved in producing this set, it would have been easy for Soord and his label to issue the cds in some form of minimalist presentation.

However, one thing I’ve observed about Soord as I’ve reviewed his last few albums, is his meticulous attention to detail, whether it be the audio mixing or the album artwork, or the high quality of bonus material included in the deluxe editions of the albums. And this new set is no exception to the high standards I’ve come to appreciate from him.

The four cds in this set come presented in a 48 page hardback book, making it feel like something special as soon as you unwrap the cellophane and feel the quality. When you open up the book, the cds can be found securely fastened on the inside cover, easily removed and re-fitted back in without any risk of scratching them. (So you can immediately relax and not worry about whether any of the discs will play – all four discs played fine on my hi-fi and ripped to my pc without any problems.)

Moving through the book, there’s a wealth of detail that makes for a fascinating read, and again is a measure of Soord’s attention to detail. I won’t reveal too much and spoil things, but you’ll be able to learn about his choice of instruments and audio equipment, and how they actually work. For a non-player such as myself, I found it really interesting and it added to my appreciation of his performances as I started listening.

The book is set out in four volumes, one for each session, and includes a detailed paragraph for each song, with personal observations from Soord, and a complete rundown of the instruments used for the particular song (and their tuning!) So, it was fun to flick back and forth through the book to read about the specific instrument that I was listening to at that point in the set. There are also plenty of photographs taken from the live streams, to help set the scene for the particular session you’re listening to.

The four sessions have been pressed to cd exactly as they went out live, with no overdubs, which makes things fun, as there’s a sense of the unpredictable the first time you listen to them. And in the true spirit of live performance there are a couple of songs which veer unexpectedly off the path due to tuning or technical gaffes, but all credit to Soord for resisting the temptation to drop them or edit them, and it adds to the enjoyment of hearing a real musician making real music on the fly.

(Soord did actually go back and perform those tracks again at a later point, being a perfectionist, and they’re included as bonus cuts.)

But in all fairness, these are merely a couple of blips against a backdrop of thirty songs, which Soord plays with the confidence of a musician who has slowly and steadily worked on his craft over the years. And it’s not the easiest of material for one musician to try and recreate live, relying on pedal effects to allow him time to swap guitars in-song, and not forgetting the lyrics along the way. But Soord pulls it off with aplomb, and his singing is particularly on form here, more exposed by the stripped back sound, and giving the songs an unexpected vulnerability and tenderness.

And he also makes for an engaging host, as he chats in between each song, responding to comments coming in live on social media, and the whole experience feels like he’s performing in your own living room, capturing a rare intimacy that can often get lost in translation when artists perform live acoustic sets and then reproduce them on cd.

It’ll be interesting to see how the more dedicated fans react to the set-lists of songs, given that the fans voted for them, but it was then down to Soord to choose the final selection and work out a running order. Personally, I enjoyed the mix of the familiar and the less familiar, and it seemed to flow fine to my ears. So much so, that I listened to all four volumes in one sitting, making for a very enjoyable and relaxing evening.

And as you’d expect, the audio mix is excellent, adding to the effect of “being there”.

Fans should feel well pleased with this set, as it offers an alternative window into the music of The Pineapple Thief, and they’ll certainly get their money’s worth with this tastefully produced book set.

As for myself, even though I was familiar with all of the band’s albums, listening to this set gave me a new-found appreciation of Soord’s talent as a musician and writer, and I’m inspired to revisit those albums all over again.