March 27, 2009

Album Review: Therapy?

Crooked Timber

7 / 10 Facts about this album:
* Therapy? are Andy Cairns (guitar, vocals), Michael McKeegan (bass) and Neil Cooper (drums).
* Cairns explains that the album is a "celebration of people's quirks", based on a quote from philosoper Immanuel Kant: From the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made.”
* This is the Northern Irish band's 12th album.

Album review:
Therapy? shone in the post-Cobain days with a few Pixies-gone-homicidal albums, culminating in 1994’s ‘Troublegum’ and an unlikely appearance on Top Of The Pops. Stormy waters lay ahead though, and the band washed up on the heavy metal hinterlands, releasing records only Tolkien-heads heard. This Andy Gill-produced effort reconnects them with some of their old guile, with these Kant-quoting outsiders making a virtue of unpredictability. ‘Clowns Galore’ is pure Hüsker Dü, ‘Blacken The Page’ is evil Arctic Monkeys and ‘I Told You I Was Ill’ is like Joy Division starring in Driller Killer. The pretensions that have soaked in over the years frequently make the album ponderous, but with gloom-rock back, Therapy? could rise again like a nutjob Lazarus.

Martin Robinson

More on this artist:
Therapy? NME Artist Page
Therapy? MySpace