Music Reviews

Therapy?

So Much for the Ten Year Plan

Ark 21

A perfectly sad picture of destroyed potential. From the general public’s perspective, this band’s output begins with their first two EPs, released on Touch And Go together as the Caucasian Psychosis LP. This record is some of the most unrelenting and caustic rock of the early ’90s, all jagged guitars, tumbling drums, and raw emotion. Shortly after, Therapy? quickly descended into shit, signing to a major label that pushed them for several years as some sort of psuedo-hip fraternity grunge. The band, from some other country (Australia?), was more than happy to cruise around the US in A&M’s tour bus with shit-eating grins on their faces, playing second fiddle to more established acts in front of scads of college kids. Problem: all of their power drained out of the bottom of their spines, with no real compensation in popularity, until the whole grunge thing blew over and they were left holding their dicks. What we’re left with is a legacy of futility, the best thing of which (besides the outstanding first LP) is the more-than-appropriate title of this retrospective CD. A perfect example of their misguided ineptitude is the cover of Hüsker Dü’s “Diane,” rendered impotent with acoustics. A real pity.


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