As founding member and principal songwriter of The Pineapple Thief, Bruce Soord has spent the last decade steadily refining a voice that balances emotional directness with musical restraint. Set for release on May 15th, Ghosts In The Park, his latest solo album, is his most personal and unguarded work to date: a record shaped by loss, memory, and the quiet spaces that reveal themselves when life continues to move while everything else appears to stop. Bruce has shared the first single from the album, titled ‘Pillars’ alongside a new video produced by George Laycock.
Excessive, damaging introspection, I guess is the theme of the song. I remember the day in my life when I was liberated from my god-fearing introspection. Only then could I see the damage it had done to me and was still doing to the people around me. The song is about that: the damage I have witnessed. It’s framed around religion and penance, but it’s not anti-religion, it’s about balance. Oh and the line about pillars. It’s a bit of a playful reference to Saint Simeon Stylites, a Christian ascetic from around 400 AD. Legend has it he perched on top of a pillar for 37 years, taking himself away from the world in order to dedicate his life entirely to prayer, fasting, and repentance. I thought it was quite apt.
I’ve been working with George Laycock from Blacktide Productions for years now, it’s incredible what he can do with his imagination and camera. – Bruce Soord
Written over a two-year period while Soord was touring extensively with The Pineapple Thief, the album emerged in hotel rooms, unfamiliar cities, and moments of enforced solitude. Against this backdrop, Soord was navigating the drawn-out decline and eventual death of his father, alongside the continued progression of his mother’s Alzheimer’s. These experiences form the emotional spine of Ghosts In The Park – grief in motion, memory surfacing unpredictably, and the quiet determination to keep moving forward.
Bruce Soord – Ghosts In The Park
https://brucesoord.lnk.to/Ghosts_In_The_Park
Concepcion [01:25]
Pillars [03:10]
Meet Me On The Downs [03:05]
Kept Me Thinking [06:34]
Day Of Wrath [04:21]
Our Predicament [03:43]
Stared Down [04:33]
You Made A Promise [02:56]
Ghosts In The Park [12:52]
