Customer Reviews

High Anxiety

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

After years of going up and down and moving fluidly from genre to genre and from moderate popularity to obscurity, Therapy? has made an album which, if there were any justice in the world, go platinum. There isn't justice so as a result the brilliant blend of pop-punk vocals and heavy instrumentation will go unheard by the masses. Two of the most brilliant parodies are on this album. "Hey Satan - You Rock" parodies Power Metal and the rediculous things that many bands do, without setting themselves apart from it. "Voodoo Doll" parodies pop-punk with grace, class, and incredibly catchy lyrics and melody. The whole album is filled with clever lyrics a sardonic tone and evidence that Therapy? is an incredibly tight band.

Therapy? has hit the mark with this album. I was expecting them to be going downhill in their careers and probably giving up soon. However, this is probably one of the strongest comeback albums I have seen in years. As a diehard Therapy? fan, I have to say this album has all of the elements to it that made Troublegum a hit. There are a few pop-punk-metal balads(Voodoo Doll, Watch You Go, and Never Ending), an angry political/religious statement(Not In Any Name), and some hard rocking radio friendly hits(Last Blast, If It Kills Me). This is almost exactly the same format that made Troublegum the instant rock and roll classic that it is. There is something small missing here that keeps this from being T?s best album...I can't quite define what it is. However, this album is about as good as you can buy from the angry irish hard rock boys being that Troublegum and Semi-Detached cannot be purchased anymore unless you luckily find them at a yard sale. This is far better than Shameless and Suicide Pact. I suggest it to any fan of T?, or for that matter, anybody who likes good hard-rock.

Therapy? burst out of Northern Ireland in the early '90s with a sound that mixed punk and metal, melody and menace, and in 1994 released one of the decade's best hard rock records, ``Troublegum.'' The last few years, though, have seen rougher going, with a shrinking audience in the States and younger, whiny nu-metal bands becoming all the rage. A lesser band would have given up, but Therapy? has come back EXTREMELY strong with this CD, which has all the pop-laced mayhem longtime fans have known and loved them for. ``Hey Satan -- You Rock,'' ``If It Kills Me'' and ``Rust,'' in particular, are as good as anything they've ever done, which is saying something. A very special band, to say the least.

MAN, this is the album that "Shameless" should have been! It is one of their three truely brilliant albums - others being "Troublegum" and "S.P.Y.F.". "High Anxiety" combines the metallic sound of "Troublegum" with the no-holds-barred attitude of "SPYF" and adds some multi-layered melody of "Semi-Detached". Yet, it sounds truely original. A must have for any rock fan.

Before I put the disc in, I was fully prepared to write a book's worth of negatives on how this Therapy? release doesn't stack up to their past stuff. Ready to bash it for being too murky like Suicide Pact, or too uneven like Infernal Love, or too sterile like Shameless. Because, as we all know, every release since Troublegum has been "not good enough." Well, i am more than pleased to report that I have no complaints with this album. None! High Anxiety marks a return to big fat riffs, and nothing but guitar/bass/drums. No ridiculous production theatrics, no layers of studio effects, no slow songs! It's all rock and it's all good. So if you were waiting for Therapy? to return to what made them great, your 10+ year wait is officially over. For the first time in a long time, I have hope for this band.

After I've heard Suicide Pact, I totally lost interest in for what was once my favourite group.
After more than 6 years of that album, I wanted to see what is Therapy? doing these days. Well, I like all of the albums, from Shameless to One cure fits all. SP:YF is still the album that puts me off every time I hear some of utterly bad and mumbling Cairn's vocals.

Generally speaking, if I can say what I _never_ liked in Therapy?, that must be Andy's filtered or mumbling vocals... and he likes to do that from time to time.

Fortunately, High anxiety is nothing like that. Andy shines vocally on this album.
It's uptempo, straight in your face album.
All songs are good, except that some have a mild mediocre feel - for example, watch you go, nobody here but us... it's just generic, you feel like you've heard this kind of songs zillion times by various bands...
Other songs are GREAT.
If it kills me is possibly their best single since Troublegum days. Just great upbeat tune that is a blast from start to finish!
This album also has few unusual shiny gems: Not in any name, Stand in line, Rust. Three awesome songs, quite different from anything on this album, but they fit there nicely.

Oh yeah, there's one hidden track called Never ending. It's quite good!

Therapy? is a band that has had its ups and downs. They were very popular in the mid 1990's, with albums like Troublegum and Infernal Love, but also very underground in the late 1990's. With High Anxiety, Therapy? still prove that they are a force to be reckoned with. Unlike previous albums as Shameless and Suicide Pact You First, High Anxiety reminds me of their best album to date Troublegum. It is not a simple copy, because there are also influences from other albums they have released. High Anxiety is just an electrifying album with heavy guitars, noise attacks (no so many as on other albums) and excellent vocals. Vocalist Andy Cairs delivers his best vocal efforts so far. A negative observation is that the album, when comparing it to their entire back catalogue, does not contain any new elements. I highly recommend listening to this album when you feel like screaming along with songs.

Its better than Shameless...whick only had like three good songs on it. Suicide Pact was the same way...three real good songs, and then the rest fell off the planet.

Now this has RAWK...written all the way through it. I normal don't like a ton of de-tuned guitars and drop D...but these guys make it work in new ways...unlike all the boring nu-metal crap.

This album is fun, and I can't put it away. i listen to it every spare second I got. This CD is awesome. Trouble Gum is the best...this is up there, along with Semi-Detached...but all the Cd's have bright, bright spots...but you can't just put the CD in without skipping songs. This one you don't have to skip and songs...

This is not Therapy?'s return to form everyone has been calling it, for two reasons. First they've never released a bad album and second this one isn't better then the previous ones.
This is a solid, rocking album, with great lyrics as usual, but i miss the experimentation and unusual approach of the last offers, in the end the main difference between High Anxiety and Suicide Pact/Shameless is that High Anxiety is more radio friendly, and i think this is a let down.

Some songs are great, Hey Satan, Stand In Line and Rust are typical Therapy? and very good, If It Kills Me is a great song but My Voodoo Doll, Last Blast, Watch You Go and especially Nobody Here But Us all seem to be not quite above the average rock playing on the radios nowadays.

I think this is a good approach for new/curious fans but not the masterpiece us, Therapy? diehard fans, been waiting for.

The artwork is fine, but there are no printed lyrics.

Rock. It's what it's all about. It's what we live for, go.. oh
wait wrong band. Therapy? is back from their last try at getting
back on top.. with an album that does have the possibility of
doing it. This album contains the 2 types of T? songs that most
folks like.. the dark heavy ones, and then the still dark but
kinda poppy ones (any Blink182 references out of the lot of you,
and it's death.. DEATH I SAY!). High spots of the album are likely
"Who Knows" and "If It Kills Me". Another fantastic tune is the
hidden track (well heck, their label even admitted it was there
accidentally, so I'm not really ruining it am I?), "Never Ending",
which is the poppy but downtrodden and bitter T? we've all come
to love.

Over all, a good solid album. A little left to be desired in
some areas, but a definate solid foot forward.. as compared to
some previous tries.

Good work!