Review of Nurse (1992)—Gnashy As They Wanna Be

by Edwin Pouncey for NME (1992)

Therapy?’s debut LP shot for their new major label opens up with a curse and a taunt. “Here I am, motherf——er!” snarls the sampled voice of an inmate from the soundtrack of psycho prison movie, Ghosts… of the Civil Dead. Therapy? then slam into Nausea which sounds as though it could have been sampled from the Nirvana songbook. Goddamn that tune, it sure as hell sounds familiar!

Much ballyhoo has recently been written up about how this power trio from Belfast could easily be next in line should that other power trio from Seattle topple from their throne. Not that Therapy? give two hoots about that, but you can bet your prized original copy of Love Buzz that A&M are simply drooling with the anticipation that such a miracle might happen.

… Therapy? build up a wall of solid playing that only they can eventually tear down. The idea behind Teethgrinder is so simple, yet so strange, that it fascinates and thrills every time it is played.

That said, Therapy?’s move from minor to major has reaped well-deserved rewards. No expense has been spared in making their record look the business, with an orb-arresting eyeball graphic on the cover upon which is floating a minute ‘?’ like a speck of grit. The message seems to be that Therapy? irritate the sensitive parts that most other bands can’t even reach.

Nausea is toe-tappingly pleasant enough, but the real meat, the real motherf——er, is yet to come! Teethgrinder (their current 45) which follows is more like it. Around a surrealistic voice sampled from some US TV slot (where a female patient is explaining her habit of grinding her teeth down to stumps in her sleep) and a garbled vocal, Therapy? build up a wall of solid playing that only they can eventually tear down. The idea behind Teethgrinder is so simple, yet so strange, that it fascinates and thrills every time it is played. If Therapy? feel they need their own ‘Teen Spirit’ icon to fling onto the fray, then here it is with both barrels blazing.

The real action, however, begins on Side Two with Perversonality, an adrenaline rush of murder and hates which spits straight in your face. Even better, and on a completely different level, is Gone, which is this record’s masterpiece. Gone puts the brakes on temporarily, shifts into a slower gear and allows the hidden menace that lurks in most of their work to uncoil like some venomous snake and rise above the ruins.

Gone pulls the listener into the bad brain of someone who is deeply disturbed and very dangerous, someone who is hungry for the thrill kill. It would be easy for Therapy? to fling back the prison door and let this crazy loose to wreak havoc but, to their credit, they resist this temptation and push your nose even closer to the bars, where the full extent of their character’s madness is revealed through a wiry guitar drone and, especially effective this, a sudden swarm of string arrangement. Splendid.

Also fine is Deep Sleep, where Therapy? use drum ’n’ bass dub effect as the foundation for more rat scratch guitar work and drowsy vocalising. this use of dub is no mere prop either, they play with an edge that’s as sharp and as clean as a surgeon’s scalpel. The perfect tool to slice, peel back and lay bare the beating blood pump of their music and ideas.

Therapy? kick off sounding like Nirvana and end with a final guitar stroke that imitates The Beatles. In between, Nurse is solid Therapy? Pure and simply staggering.

Rating: 8/10.

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