Some basic info on Therapy? to get us started. Sometimes categorised as punk, sometimes metal or simply 'alternative', the Irish trio first appeared some time around 1991, at the time when punk and hardcore were re-equipping themselves to invade and assimilate the New Wave and indiepop of the early nineties; as such, Therapy? were largely a punk power-pop kinda trio, fronted by Andy Cairns on snarling vocals and guitar with Michael McKeegan on bass and Fyfe Ewing on drums.
Albums
The debut album was a bit hit-and-miss, but they were gaining in popularity as a live act at the time. None of the songs from this one stick in my mind anymore, though.
- Nausea
- Teethgrinder
- Disgraceland
- Accelerator
- Neck Freak
- Perversonality
- Gone
- Zipless
- Deep Sleep
- Hypermania
They hit the big-time with the second album, Troublegum, which continued the theme of inane puns as song titles, and featured such curiosities as a duet with Lesley Rankine (Ruby, Silverfish) on Lunacy Booth, and a cover of Joy Division's Isolation. Listening to all the tracks on this album, there 'aint a bad 'un among them. It was through this album in particular that I really discovered Joy Division too, so I guess I owe it a lot...
- Knives
- Screamager
- Hellbelly
- Stop It You're Killing Me
- Nowhere
- Die Laughing
- Unbeliever
- Trigger Inside
- Lunacy Booth
- Isolation
- Turn
- Femtex
- Unrequited
- Brainsaw
Urban legend has it that the original master for the album included a very violent hidden track after a gap on Brainsaw, which was replaced, for the sake of listener's nerves, with the crooning victorola-ised rendition of You Are My Sunshine on the distributed version.
Bordering on major chart success with Stories and Loose, the most memorable moments (IMHO) of Infernal Love are the cover version of Husker Du's Diane, and the memory of reading Andy Cairns' tour diaries in Q or NME or some such, telling how he knocked up all the B-sides in about an hour while in the midst of the come-down from a massive coke binge. Doing it for the kids, y'know? More varied in tone and pace than either of the previous two albums, from the straightforward inoffensive pop hits, to the darker more subversive, via what does, pretty much, sound like mere filler. *sigh*
- Epilepsy
- Stories
- A Moment of Clarity
- Jude the Obscene
- Bowels of Love
- Misery
- Bad Mother
- Me vs. You
- Loose
- Diane
- 30 Seconds
Returning to the Troublegum formula, the brief flirtation with chart success left the public's relationship with the band seeming more one of tolerance than anything else. Still, some solid tunes, but no hits. Hilights of the album are the screaming, mocking, Straight Life and the chirpy, caustic sarcasm of Stay Happy, and it's spoken word ansaphone intro: "Leave a message, or leave me alone!"
- Church of Noise
- Tightrope Walker
- Black Eye, Purple Sky
- Lonely, Cryin' Only
- Born Too Soon
- Stay Happy
- Safe
- Straight Life
- Heaven's Gate
- Don't Expect Roses
- Tramline
- The Boy's Asleep
I haven't yet got round to even buying this record, and I sure didn't take any notice of whatever the press said about it (you see folks, this is all from after I stopped paying any attention to them. I stopped reading NME the day they published an article actually lauding The Spice Girls. The Day The Music Died, but that's a story for another node).... so until I buy it and form an opinion of my own, here's a track list courtesy of Amazon for sake of completeness should some kind soul decide to node any lyrics:
- He's Not That Kind of Girl
- Wall of Mouths
- Jam Jar Jail
- Hate Kill Destroy
- Big Cave In
- Six Mile Water
- Little Tongues First
- Ten Year Plan
- God Kicks
- Other People's Misery
- Sister
- Whilst I Pursue My Way Unharmed
And I shall now pre-emptively hardlink my writeup to 'Avoid Highly Subjective Writeups', just to be a killjoy for all the soft-linking cowards who happen to disagree with my commentary :)