The Pineapple Thief have shared their new single, “Driving Like Maniacs”, which is the latest track to be taken from their upcoming album, Versions Of The Truth, which is out on September 4 via Kscope.

The track itself is harmonious and affecting in its delivery yet despite its atmospheric bliss, tackles the heavy subject of loss and separation. The accompanying video is a melancholic yet beautifully visual piece of work and captures a personal and profound journey through the eyes of frontman Bruce Soord whilst weaving between performances by the band.

“The song has a very specific meaning to me, from a very specific event in my life. But I always give George (Laycock), who produces and directs all of our videos, total control over how he wants to adapt it for the big screen. The main shoot was shot along a coastal road on the Dorset Jurassic coast, and I spent the sunset of an August evening driving up and down the coastal road in a car.  It brought back vivid memories from my youth,” comments Soord.

“The song is about estrangement, but George managed to find his own take on it.  About a father forced to abandon his child in order to save him, to care for him in absentia. Ultimately at least, there is light at the end of the dark tunnel.”

The performance element is also very important, sitting within that narrative. “We wanted to include the full band in this video. The Pineapple Thief is definitely a band, a true collaboration, so it made sense that George also included shots of Gavin, Jon and Steve playing.”

Throughout the album, The Pineapple Thief explore vast swathes of sonic territory, with minimalist passages building to explosive crescendos and instrumentals which blend disparate elements into flowing expressionism to create an immersive dichotomy.

It’s an album that holds up a mirror to the chaos and conflict of 21st-century life and tries to make sense of the distorted reflections that gaze back at it. A blurring between the real and the perceived, between meaning and intent. The title says it all: this is the soundtrack for a post-truth world.

“When you have conflict, the truth gets bent and kicked around, the facts get changed,” says Soord. “That’s why people argue or get divorced or fight - because nobody can agree on what the truth is. That idea of different versions of the truth especially applies to the world we’re living in right now. All these things are happening where nobody has any idea of what the real truth of anything is because everything is so distorted.”

The darkly anthemic title track opens the album and sows the seeds for what follows. Alluding to broken friendships and how the truth becomes the first casualty even in the most personal conflicts, it finds Soord approaching the subject from two opposite yet connected perspectives.

That very personal undercurrent flows beneath the entire album. The haunting and nocturnal "Driving Like Maniacs" paints a vivid picture of a friendship always destined to crash and burn, while the seven-and-a-half minute "Our Mire" finds Soord addressing the consequences that come in the wake of a broken relationship.

The themes of the album - ever-changing perspectives and malleable truths - are reflected in its artwork. An etching by the late German artist Michael Schoenholtz, it features a series of kinetic, abstract shapes that seem to reveal a different image to whoever looks at it. Gavin Harrison came across the etching just as the band were finishing Versions Of The Truth, and showed it to his bandmates.

“That particular etching just seemed to resonate with me,” says Harrison. “Within five minutes we had all chosen the same image. It was the fastest selection process of a band that I’ve ever witnessed. As is often the case with modern contemporary art, different people find different meaning within it. Personally I see it as an intriguing maze that depicts the mental process of creativity. It never has straight lines.”

Produced by the four members of the band - vocalist Bruce Soord, keyboardist Steve Kitch, bassist Jon Sykes and drummer Gavin Harrison - Versions Of The Truth marries a stellar musical breadth to a spectrum of emotions that run from anger and confusion to sadness and regret and even glimmers of hope. In places, the album is starkly autobiographical. In others, it confronts the chaos of modern life head-on.

What has emerged stands as The Pineapple Thief’s finest album yet. It takes the creative and commercial triumphs of their last two albums, 2016’s breakthrough Your Wilderness and its follow-up Dissolution and magnifies them. Musically bold and lyrically thought-provoking, this is the sound of a band determined to push themselves forward.

Versions Of The Truth will be released on CD, LP, digitally, Blu-Ray disc with bonus track and is now available for pre-order here.

Tracklisting:

"Versions Of The Truth"
"Break It All"
"Demons"
"Driving Like Maniacs"
"Leave Me Be"
"Too Many Voices"
"Our Mire"
"Out Of Line"
"Stop Making Sense"
"The Game"

"Driving Like Maniacs" video:

"Demons" video:

(Photo - Diana Seifert)