Therapy? – A Brief Crack of Light
Posted on 21st Feb 12 by Mike McGrath Bryan | 
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“…it’s an intoxicating brew, and one that once again, sets them apart from the pack and reminds us why Therapy? have been the standard-bearers for so long…”
Twenty-three years in and the North’s elder musical statesmen, Therapy?, still aren’t all that bothered with resting on their laurels. It’s a trait that has served them, and the Irish underground, well, ensuring they’ve succeeded in outlasting the various fads down through the years and providing Irish music with gatekeepers, arbiters of taste, constantly anticipating the zeitgeist and then side-stepping it.
2009 saw twelfth album Crooked Timber release to a rapturous reception from all corners of the music press, and the trio could hardly be blamed, in their advancing years for wishing perhaps to finally settle on one sound, especially given the praise thrown at their more mature moments.Thank all that is unholy, then, for Therapy?‘s restless creative urges, encapsulated with vim and vigour on A Brief Crack of Light, an album that falls somewhere between Crooked Timber‘s rhythmic, progressive sensibilities and the merciless noise and rabble-rousing of fan favourite Suicide Pact-You First. It’s an intoxicating brew, and one that once again, sets them apart from the pack and reminds us why Therapy? have been the standard-bearers for so long.
All philosophy their approach may be these days, this time taking inspiration from, among others, literary heavyweight Vladimir Nabokov, but make no mistake, from the moment the first distorted chord of Living in the Shadow of the Terrible Thing drags you in, it’s clear that this is a Therapy? reenergised and happy to wear that shit-eating grin across their faces again, doing so in a classic T? single driven by filthy bass and preternatural rhythm, all underpinned by a Flann O’Brien-inspired sense of dread. Dread, which, actually, is an underlying theme throughout the entire album, the reflections of Crooked Timber giving way to a panicked existentialism at once dreadfully bleak and utterly thrilling, investing tunes like the strident Plague Bell and Before You, With You, After You with a wonderful urgency to back their clattering noise and post-punk directness. Indeed, the slinking Why Turbulence is up there with the heaviest stuff they’ve ever done, musically and lyrically, a maudlin reflection on the meaning of life and the approach of Death, a “big black-hooded perambulator, running red lights to the cemetery“.
However, the most worthwhile aspect of ABCOL is, as ever, the left turns that Therapy? go out of their way to throw at you. Marlow follows on the same instrumental territory as CT‘s Magic Mountain, compacting its explorations into an unlikely, starry-eyed singalong. Get Your Dead Hand off My Shoulder resonates, deep with a dubby undercurrent that acts as a soothing counterpoint to its heavy lyrical content. The Buzzing is an obfuscating, wired-awake joyride, with a riff more at home on their 2004 platter Never Apologise, Never Explain. Purposely shambling, it all begins to make sense in a hail of drums as vocalist Andy Cairns plaintively pleads not “to be lost in the system, forgotten” before pulsing dubstep-esque wubs put that aforementioned grin on the face of the listener. The comparatively peaceful Ghost Trio excels in the rhythm department, placing emphasis on Michael McKeegan‘s bass to carry subtle melodies.
But where it all makes sense, where the album comes together, is album-closer Ecclesiastes, a vocoder-laden treat that wouldn’t have sounded out of place on 1995′s mind-bending Infernal Love. A slow, shuffling paean to love in the absurdity of existence, it’s equally poignant and relevant, with a gentle giant of a vocal hook that hits and leaves a mark: “Without you to lose myself in, I’d have given up”. The swishing ambient noise that overlays the vocals only adds to the atmosphere, lapping the album’s end like waves at a low ebb.
We would be remiss if we didn’t make the point that this is the band’s thirteenth album. Yet, any remarks about the band’s longevity and status would merely be pandering. This is a band that has succeeded yet again in creating something fresh and relevant, more so than the majority of bands half their age, perhaps the result of this being their debut behind the desk. Spirited, purposeful, crisp and shot through with a black humour that ensures that no matter how deep this album will drag you, you’ll always emerge better than when you went down. Fan-fuckin’-tastic.
Drop-d Rating: 9/10
Tags: A Brief Crack of Light, Andy Cairns, Michael McKeegan, Neil Cooper, therapy?
Great review of a great album!