Forgotten Album of the Month: Therapy?

Forgotten Album of the Month: Therapy?

While I have already spoken about Therapy? a while ago with “If It Kills Me,” the band is just so underrated that one of their best records deserves a spot here. In 2000, the band released Suicide Pact: You First on the very tiny Ark 21 label and the record was almost immediately forgotten about in America. Elsewhere, critics decried the record as being too dense and heavy but that’s one of the record’s great strengths.

The record kicks off with “He’s Not That Kind of Girl,” a hard-rocking track that kicked the shit out of all the crap-rock of the era and still does. By playing as hard and throttling as they can, the band were playing through all the bullshit they’d gone through with their previous label, A&M. The record’s rocking intensity continues through to what’s probably the best song on the record, “Wall of Mouths;” not only is it the best song on the record, it’s probably one of the best songs of the band’s career, which is quite a feat considering all the great songs the band already had.

About midway through, the band takes it down a notch for a bit and tries to calm things down in the midst of all the chaos. While hearing a band like Therapy? quiet is a bit weird at first, the band are able to put their own twist on it. Witness “God Kicks,” a strange little number where frontman Andy Cairns sings in a Tom Waits-type voice and sings about having a child and then having the law come and take her away. The song is just so weird but it works so well within the context of the rest of the record.

Overall, the band were at their hardest and heaviest here but with their next few records, the band didn’t change things much but they were still unable to break through, which is a damn shame. Nowadays, Suicide Pact: You First as well as most of their catalogue is out of print in America which is an absolute crime and is something that needs to be rectified as soon as possible. In the meantime, if you ever come across a copy of this or any other Therapy? record, get your hands on it as soon as you possibly can and discover what you and the rest of America has been missing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3A3zzTE52k (Little Tongues First)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zF1yspzwBxg (Six Mile Water)

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