Therapy? - Crooked Timber
Alternative metal three-piece Therapy? are back once again with the follow-up to disappointing eleventh studio album One Cure Fits All with the curiously titled Crooked Timber. With almost twenty years’ experience now behind them, the band have clearly paid close attention to their sound this time round; Crooked Timber is one of the Irish rockers’ most consistent and experimental offerings to date.
The record sees the same old punk rock template being applied, but in writing these songs, the band seems to have headed into relatively unfamiliar territory. With a much more rhythmical approach to composition and a heavy focus on injecting as much energy into each track as possible, the results speak for themselves.
Finally the band has somehow regained the tension and awkwardness that made early recordings so captivating. Generally neat and tidy but rough around the edges, the production techniques employed on this album act as a proud father to the boys’ reinvigorated sound.
A fast-paced, gutsy and angst-laden addition, Crooked Timber has the potential to re-ignite Therapy?’s ailing flame. While musically, much of the band’s sound remains unchanged, it is the overall consistency and acute delivery of songs that place this latest release on a higher ground than weaker past offerings.
Stand-out tracks include the head-squeezing Clowns Galore and the raging but tempered tide of Enjoy The Struggle. The guitars grind, the drums rumble and a whole host of subtle additions make for a selection that truly places Crooked Timber on the medium height pedestal it deserves after such a long wait.
While there is an element of sameness about the record overall, the improved flow and consistency creates the impression that Therapy? have finally found their feet. Twisted, dark and unsettling, Crooked Timber doesn’t reinvent anything, but it should certainly restore the hope that Therapy? do have some good tunes left in them yet.
Rating: 3/5
Skip To: Clowns Galore
Anthony Hill
Tagged in Therapy