Therapy? – Tides
Here’s what you may need to know…
01. The gatekeepers of the Irish underground are in rude health as always. Twenty-seven years and counting in the game, with their fourteenth album Disquiet hitting shelves last year, Ballyclare/Larne’s Therapy? unleash their best ‘pop’ single in years with Tides.
02. Though many casual observers associate the boys in black with their major-label heyday in the mid-Nineties, they never went away.
03. Sadly unloved belters include 1999’s Suicide Pact – You First and 2004’s Never Apologise Never Explain, but most notably a pair of honest-to-jaysus classics in 2010’s cerebral Crooked Timber and 2012’s groovy A Brief Crack of Light.
04. Disquiet, from which Tides is taken, acts as a sequel of sorts to 1994’s million-selling Troublegum, and sees the band revisiting that album’s teenage protagonist as a middle-aged man in the throes of further tumult.
05. The song itself is inspired singer/guitarist Andy Cairns‘ time living in Dun Laoghaire [Co Dublin], as evidenced by the single’s artwork.
06. Keen punk fans will spot the other reference in the cover art immediately, and it’s intentional: Bob Mould, of hardcore trailblazers/accidental college-rock inventors Hüsker Dü was a major influence on the song’s writing.
Verdict: Though the album itself feels a little retro after the band’s insistence on forward-thinking for the better part of three decades, Tides is one of its highlights. Here’s hoping for more of this somewhat psychey, washed-out pop in the not too dim ‘n’ distant.
Great to see these lads still going
I used to love em back in the early days. They had some of the craziest live shows ever to take place here. They are still the best band to come from this island in my (musically warped) opinion.
they used to use my old band’s equipment when rehearsing when theirs was still in transit back from the states, Andy is one of the funniest guys you’ll ever meet, and thankfully has sobered up these days. Keep it up lads!
Good song, funny video.