OR   Search for Artist/Title    Advanced Search
 
you are not logged in...  [login] 
All Reviews    Edit This Review     
Review: 'Therapy?'
'Disquiet'   

-  Album: 'Disquiet' -  Label: 'Amazing Record Co.'
-  Genre: 'Rock' -  Release Date: '23rd March 2015'

Our Rating:
Credit to Therapy? for the fact they’re still here and the fact they’re very much a going concern rather than a nostalgia act. The probability is extremely high that it would be infinitely more profitable for them to have announced they were calling it a day, before ‘reforming’ and playing the hits from ‘Troublegum’ and ‘Infernal Love’ on brief tours of academy-sized venues, than ploughing on with a new album every couple of years.



But here they are, 26 years on from their formation and a full two decades from the height of their commercial success, with their 14th album. Awkward, perverse bastards. It was, of course, ever thus. At least, more or less. Creatively, they’ve experienced a few peaks and troughs, and while ‘Nurse’ remains my favourite album, their biggest hits coincided not only with the musical zeitgeist, but their tuning into a more accessible approach to songwiting.



A proportion of their post-millennial output has been a rather diluted rehash of their ‘glory days’ signature sound, but the fact none of their last half-dozen albums have failed to chart speaks more of the changing face of the music industry than the music itself. ‘High Anxiety’ (2003) and ‘A Brief Crack of Light’ (2012) were both cracking albums in their own right. ‘Disquiet’, not so much.



It suffers primarily from a murky production that muffles the guitars and drums and diminishes any sense of attack it may have from the outset. Andy Cairns still does the pissed off to hell thing with sincerity and total credibility, but unfortunately sounds a shade jaded on this outing.



‘Disquiet’ is the sound of a band at a crossroads. The verses are menacing, but before the atmosphere has been evolved, they’re straight into the contrasting and hooksome chorus, with an accessible vocal melody.



To be clear: I’m not hankering after the good old days, I don’t want them to recreate the spirit of ‘Teethgrinder’ or ‘Potato Junkie’ or even ‘Screamager’. The point is they can, and have, even recently, done better. Plus, ‘Disquiet’ does have its moments: the fiery opener and lead single, ‘Still Hurts’ bristles with serrated edges (reminiscent as it is of ‘Knives’ - although in fairness, it’s intentional). ‘Idiot Cousin’ has a classic 90s grunge vibe, not least of all on account of the drawling delivery in the ‘yeaaaaaah’ chorus, and closer ‘Deathstimate’ veers in a more Sabbathesque direction thanks to a big, crunching riff that works to good effect.



Sadly, ‘Good News is No News’ sounds very standard, as do the Therapy? by numbers ‘Fall Behind’ and ‘Tides’.



More of a case of a middling, hit-and-miss album than out and out crap, it’s a grower, and above all, it’s a Therapy? album and it sounds like one. And that’s something to be grateful for.



Therapy? Online
  author: Christopher Nosnibor

[Show all reviews for this Artist]

READERS COMMENTS    10 comments still available (max 10)    [Click here to add your own comments]

There are currently no comments...
----------



Therapy? - Disquiet