Therapy? - Crooked Timber [Album]

DR2 Records

June 3, 2009, 10:20 PM

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Crooked Timber marks 20 years existence for Therapy?, which is marked by their fourteenth release, Crooked Timber. Having maintained a pretty solid line up throughout their career, with very minimal changes, Therapy? have managed to be very consistent in their sound and styling. Crooked Timber being the first full length of Therapy’s?, that I have ever listened to, I was slightly apprehensive as to what to expect. In my view I’ve always seen them as one of those bands that is consistently average and never seems to break through to the big time, just plodding along holding on and never becoming anything truly ground breaking.

Crooked Timber broke that opinion in me and instead of showing me why Therapy? have never become, in my eyes, a massively know band, it showed me why they have consistently been able to make a successful career out of their music. The music isn’t massively complicated and isn’t new or innovative it is just simply good solid alt rock with hints of metal. The production is great with all the instruments standing out with a very clear and individual voice.

The album starts off with a harder edge; the bass having a very metallic tinge, the tracks generally having punctuated rhythms and mellowed verses leading to fuller choruses. The second half of Crooked Timber seems to be more rounded with a lot more vocal harmonies and fuller songs. The highlight for me, though, is the mammoth 10-minute wonder that is ‘Magic Mountain’. The track starts in typical Therapy? style with a sludgy slow riff but then soon drops in to this ambient sweeping harmonic riff that lays the foundations for this track. The track moves in to various different realms but seems to always move back to the harmonic riff, but still ever building in a very Pelican-esque fashion.

This album has showed me that there is diversity within Therapy? and that the main tracks that I’ve heard, displaying simple rock melodies and pop structures, are only a minor facet of this bands ability. Therapy? have created an album that structurally flows and that is not a very easy task to achieve.

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