SOUNDTRACK: THERAPY?-High Anxiety (2003).
I hadn’t listened to this disc in a long time, and I was delighted by how much I remembered (and liked) it. This was the last Therapy? album that received a release in the U.S. And it is a solid collection of heavy alternative metal with some seriously catchy bits thrown in for good measure.
“If It Kills Me” could have been a huge hit with a killer chorus and amazing hooks. As could “My Voodoo Doll” (an outrageously poppy song). Even the penultimate song “Last Blast” starts out with a low rumbling bassline, but when the chorus comes in it’s warm and catchy (even if again it’s lyrically not warm).
But what’s amazing is how good the whole disc is. Their previous disc was something of a muddle of styles and textures. It was an interesting but not entirely successful experiment. But High Anxiety returns to what Therapy? does best: raw, and noisy alt-metal with really catchy melodies. Most of the time I don’t even care what Andy Cairns is singing about (it’s usually pretty dark) because regardless, it’s sure fun to sing along.
The final track is a 9 minute crazy mess. It opens with Cairn’s Tom Waits-ian vocals and a pounding guitar line. It stops after a few minutes and then picks up again with that pounding guitar line (repeating a little much, honestly, but it is a cool riff). Then after 7 minutes there’s a new bonus track which is practically like Green Day, it’s so poppy.
This is definitely one of their best discs.
[READ: April 25, 2010] “The TV”
This (very) short story begins with a wonderful concept: a man wakes up one day and calls in sick from work. He turns on the TV and sees himself, his actual self, finishing his actual job.
The man is transfixed, obviously. I mean who wouldn’t be? He tunes in the next day and watches himself drive to work, sit down and begin doing his job–more efficiently than he himself had been doing it! The credits even indicate that yes, the man is the man. Amazing. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 