Wall of Mouths

Therapy? - One Cure Fits All (Spitfire Records)
By: Ken McGrath

Once the beguiling ‘Outro’ has subsided things get off to their proper beginning with Sprung. Fans of this Northern Irish trio will already know that Therapy? like to open their albums up with a little blinder and this albums no different. Choppy, hi-hat heavy drumming that wouldn’t have been out of place on their Babyteeth debut slices the verses wide open, while during the chorus ringing guitars are the order of the day. “Don’t take it laying down” warns Andy Cairns during the bridge, before the rebounding riff bounds forth once again, the cymbal-led drums rounding the troops up for another chant of “they didn’t believe me then / they won’t believe me now”. Deluded Son keeps the adrenaline flowing, it’s huge, memorable chorus crying to be let loose as a single to wreck havoc over rock radio. The sparse verses are almost entirely composed of rolling drums, everything else cascading in then for the simple, yet compelling chorus. This one’s got ‘live favourite’ written all over it. ‘Into The Light’ continues the run, Andy’s wide-eyed vocals laced with a weird sense of charm, revealing this to be the next obvious step after the two albums that have gone before it. Like both High Anxiety and Never Apologise Never Explain, One Cure Fits All is classic Therapy? but without repeating themselves. As it stands they’re at the stage where they don’t have to worry about selling bin loads of singles, ruling myspace.com or competing with Fall Out Boy for the cover of your favourite rock magazine. They have reached a level that few bands get to, seventeen years together and once again with a steady line-up (Niall Cooper (drums) is thankfully showing no signs of giving up his place behind the kit), Therapy? have an immense back catalogue to call upon. But with material this strong there is no need to rely entirely on it. Sure, ‘Lose It All’, isn’t the best song they’ve ever written but Rain Hits Concrete shows development and maturity. As does the hyperventilating Fear Of God, the droning Unconsoled and Walk Through Darkness, which boasts a glorious bass-line courtesy of Michael McKeegan, that you could bounce around to all night long. Even Dopamine.Seratonin.Adrenaline. which at first comes across like a throwaway song reveals itself to be an infectious little number. Not relying on any formula and sounding like no-one apart from themselves Therapy? are still as relevant today as they were in 92 when Teethgrinder hit or in 94 when ‘Troublegum’ sent them into the upper atmosphere. If you have yet to be seduced then don’t worry, the preacher man with the crazy eyes and the goatee is standing behind the pulpit and he’s got a dose of the cure for you. Lie back and take it in through the ears.

One Cure Fits All
Therapy?
Eagle

In Brief - Irish rockers keep on deliverin’ the goods
The thing I really like about Therapy is how they never sound like any band other than Therapy! They’ve never really been a massive commercial band, selling millions with every release, but they’ve been around a long time and it seems like they won’t be stopping anytime soon. They seem to change by not changing at all. They always sound quite fresh, yet familiar. This album is no exception to the rule, after the intro noise, ‘Outro’, a Therapy-style riff kicks the album off beautifully. It’s like you know what’s coming, but you don’t mind because what you get is just what you want. By track 3, ‘Deluded Son’, it’s clear that this one is going to be one of the singles. It’s got a good intro, good verse and catchy chorus way before the minute’s up. Great.

Another sing-along comes in the form of, ‘Dopamine, Seratonin, Adrenaline’, with a chorus just begging to be screamed out by everyone at whichever venue they play, with absolute drunken passion and feeling. But the velocity doesn’t stop there, the next couple of songs offer almost equal amounts of passion and melody. It makes you want to start the album again and listen to everything again to make sure you didn’t miss anything, and time is what this album deserves. Once you put the time into it, it gives you the equivalent and more back.

Therapy always seem to have bitter/sarcastic feel to their records, they have loads of character and confidence and lets face it, never conform to anything that’s going on around them. You have to respect that, whether you like them or not. They are an honest band, making honest music and have a loyal fan-base. The fact they played a 5 date string of gigs at the humble Camden Underworld a few years ago, boasting how the fans would rather see them in a small venue instead of lifeless and cold ones like the Astoria (for example), says a lot about the band.

Overall, this album gives you one thing and one thing only, it gives you Therapy. That doesn’t sound like a lot if you know anything about the band then you’ll know that it is, and that’s its all you’ll ask of them. It honest, well crafted, full of hooks, full of balls and intelligence.

It comes down to this, if you like Therapy, you’ll like this album. If you’ve never heard Therapy before, here is a good place to start. [Rating 8]

Reviewer James Arter

This is good news!:D

Hopefully some people with tight black trousers, big fuck off belts and problems with depth perception will be inspired to buy.

:o

Could someone, ahem, scan it?

I don’t like kerrang that much.

Imagine if therapy? became the new green day, haha… :D :\

..my dogtag reads leave me alone..Great song! One of my favourites. Really strong song, great drumming!

Ronald wrote:

They are an honest band, making honest music and have a loyal fan-base. The fact they played a 5 date string of gigs at the humble Camden Underworld a few years ago, boasting how the fans would rather see them in a small venue instead of lifeless and cold ones like the Astoria (for example), says a lot about the band.

Reviewer James Arter

Err, it was 3 dates in the Underworld I think, almost 6 years ago. I was at the first one!

Billy Blue wrote:

Nice three quarters of a page review in Kerrang!

I was pretty shocked to see that Kerrang is including download tips to their reviews…
Do they really think that kids will download songs in a legal way!?

Mully wrote:

THERAPY? One Cure Fits All Spitfire/Eagle Rock
3/5

There was a period when it seemed as if Therapy? were taking a long time in going nowhere. Certainly, their excellent, truculent early 1990s records (Babyteeth, Pleasure Death, Nurse) were very much a fond memory. Fast forward to 2003 (High Anxiety) and 2004 (Never Apologise Never Explain), and it seemed as if the band were imploding from lack of direction and melody. Good metal needs more than muscle (ask Metallica) and with One Cure Fits All it seems that Andy Cairns and colleagues have gone back to the drawing board and drafted in the kind of tunesmithery that has already proven an amenable addition to the likes of Queens of the Stone Age. Hence songs as strong as Deluded Son, Rain Hits Concrete, Private Nobody and Dopamine, Seratonin, Adrenaline (which has surefire anthem written all over its skinny, tattooed frame). Therapy? in good album shock? About time.
Tony Clayton-Lea

That’s so random. By the time T? release their next album the guy will write exactly the same thing: that Therapy? were directionless or whatever until NOW. And then he’ll forget… again. I hate it when critics apparently don’t even take their time to listen to those albums properly. :mad:

Maybe because their videos have never exactly been all that good. I have them purely for the sake of having them.

Billy Blue wrote:

One other observation. I didn’t really like NANE that much when I first heard it, took a while and now I love it. Thats normally a good sign for an album, coz it takes a while to get to know it. With OCFA I have liked it immediately, which sometimes can mean the album won’t stand up to repeated listening for years to come (BTW, I’ve been listening to my promo, not a download)

Mm, I know what you mean. I really liked HA as soon as it came out, but I don’t play it as often as their other albums anymore. On the other hand, I also loved NANE as soon as it came out, and I still do. :D

I prefer Private Nobody to Deluded Son, by the way.

Spot on review

Bad Karma wrote:

While Andy Cairns,like your shit cool,wild eyed and drunk uncle stands at the pulpit shouting down his sermon.

8/10

I’ve got a very nice picture in my head now :D

ARSE! IGNORE THIS TOPIC!!!!

I will :p