Therapy? — Never Apologise Never Explain

With their tenth album Ireland's Therapy? are maybe even stronger now than they were a couple of years ago. Every album released has been compared to their intitial succes Troublegum from 1994. And honestly, none of them had the same impact on me as that one.

Last years High Anxiety came close and can still be found in my cd player occasionaly. With Never Apologise Never Explain the band jumps back to their roots. As much as High Anxiety was polished and clean, Never Apologise Never Explain is dirty and raw.

I like Therapy? clean and polished, but I do have a thing for their dark and raw sound. Never Apologise Never Explain was recorded in fourteen days and you can hear it. Vocals are distant, guitars raw and drums are pounding. The band is a three piece now and that's what they wanted to show the listener on the album. With the flat production, dark lyrics and raw guitars Therapy? show their dark side. If High Anxiety was upbeat then Never Apologise Never Explain is downright ugly.

And this time ugly isn't such a bad thing. With songs like Rise Up and Die Like A Motherfucker the band starts the album quite loud. Two excellent tracks. So are Perish The Thought, the excellent Panic and This Ship Is Sinking. Polar Bear is an oddity, but one of my favourite tracks on thealbum. Long Distance sounds as the most upbeat track on the disc, which reminds me of their Infernal Love days. The album ends with Last One To Heaven Is A Loser, which is a great last thought to end the album on.

So far so good. With Never Apologise Never Explain Therapy? released an excellent album. It's different enough from High Anxiety to alienate some of their recently aquired fans. For me it's quite a different album, showing the darker side of the band. The music has to sink in at first, but after a while the album shows it's true self.