Bruce Soord and
Jonas Renkse
Wisdom of Crowds
Birthed
from a union of The Pinapple Thief’s
bandleader and Katatonia’s vocalist,
Wisdom of Crowds is what might be
thought of as ‘soft-prog’. There are
lots of ideas on show, and it certainly is progressive music, but it also would
be capable of some serious radio-bothering.
This is the ‘soaring choruses’ end of prog, and at times on this record
they really do soar. Standout track
‘Frozen North’ strips the formula down further, to a prolonged acoustic intro
with some string accompaniment, before morphing into a thumping rock
ballad. Renkse has a great voice, Soord
plays a mean guitar, and the inventive use of samples helps to set this apart
from others in the genre. Ultimately, I
prefer this significantly to previous offerings by either The Pinapple Thief or Katatonia,
which probably says a lot.
Sample track: ‘Frozen North’
Sample track: ‘Frozen North’