by Martin Hutchinson
I have been a long-time fan of music you can immerse yourself in, music in which to lose yourself from the tedium of the modern world. I wouldn’t have included internationally renowned experimental rock outfit The Pineapple Thief in that arena, their sound has a harder, rockier edge more akin to Porcupine Tree but the second solo release from band’s multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and frontman Bruce Soord most definitely does. His latest release, All This Will Be Yours is an album of acoustic and personal vision. Described by Soord as an observational record, it is inspired by the joy felt by the birth of his third child juxtaposed by the local deprivation in his hometown.
Bruce explains “Emotionally it was a pretty unique & eventful time, my wife was due to have our 3rd child at any time but she managed to come to see the final date of the TPT tour at London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire, after the show that night we returned home to Yeovil and the next day our baby girl arrived. So, we had this new life in our lives and it introduced a very different perspective on the world around me. I was totally inspired and started writing almost immediately.”
He continues “You’d like to think that something as simple as having a child shouldn’t impact on how you view things, but even the sight of a serene, sleeping baby in my studio while I was writing and recording, impacted on how I was inspired to write. I was still observing. Taking walks in my hometown, witnessing the deprivation, the ‘incarcerated souls’ shuffling to my local drug den ‘number 158’, the screaming children on their commute to school. And the incessant sounds of sirens. I would take a mobile recorder out with me and some of these sounds made it onto the record. The kids, an old man walking along the street singing outside my house (‘Our Gravest Threat Apart’). And the sirens. The sirens appear throughout the record.”
Having found Soord’s debut self-titled solo album something of a revelation, I was interested to see how things had progressed. All This Will Be Yours is a touching and immersive delight, a warm and welcoming collection of songs that shimmer with layers of heartfelt, personal emotion. Low key and yet with incredible depth, the music has a mellow and involving feel, especially on tracks like the beautiful “Time Does Not Exist” and “One Day I Will Leave You”. Here’s wistful melancholy aplenty as the sparse overtones of “The Solitary Path of a Convicted Man” wash over you and intensity personified on the mournful, contemplative and haunting title track.
Lushly produced by Soord and lovingly mastered by fellow The Pineapple Thief member Steve Kitch, All This Will Be Yours is a cultured gem of a record that has created music as a definitive art form. Born from the joy of bringing life into the world and the pain that Soord sees in the privation and hardship of his hometown, this is an album that will linger long in the memory.
Released on October 25th, 2019 via Kscope.
Key Tracks: All This Will Be Yours, Our Gravest Threat Apart, Time Does Not Exist
All This Will Be Yours tracklisting
1. The Secrets I Know [02:24]
2. Our Gravest Threat Apart [04:14]
3. The Solitary Path Of A Convicted Man [03:44]
4. All This Will Be Yours [06:04]
5. Time Does Not Exist [03:33]
6. One Misstep [04:00]
7. You Hear The Voices [06:54]
8. Cut The Flowers [04:35]
9. One Day I Will Leave You [05:17]
