Therapy? – Nurse

vote
8.5

• Band:
  Therapy?
• Duration: 00:40:28
• Available from: 17/10/1992
• Label:

• A&M Records

The birth of Therapy? It was traced back to 1989, in that of Larne, a town in Northern Ireland, thanks to the encounter between the singer/guitarist Andy Cairns, leader of the band up to the present day, and the drummer Fyfe Ewing, who instead will leave in 1996. The two young friends, fans of punk, post-punk and new wave, are soon reached by the bassist Michael Mckeegan, who brings in the skill. Metal and hardcore influences, completing the formation that comes to the recording of two EPs, first the “Babyteeth” debut, which already achieves a fair success at the level of indie rankings, and then the subsequent “Pleasure Death”: a sudden growth that brings, within a three -year period and after a beneficial tour for the compactness of the trio, to the publication of the first album, “Nurse”.
To frame the situation at the time, we remember that there is talk of a period of profound changes for traditional and ferment metal, on the contrary, for alternative music in general: think only that in a couple of years they see the light of the 'black album' of the metal albums, the most important discs of the grunge scene, the soundtrack of “Judgement Night” (of which the therapy? Rock/Metal and Rap, “Vulgar Display of Power” of the Pantera and some of the greatest Death Metal masterpieces. Yet Therapy's proposal? It is completely different from everything that at that precise moment is fashionable and, if at the level of sound does not follow any trends, in common with many contemporary artists there is the desire to risk, to experiment, to jump unconscious on something new, while working on consolidated influences, which are not difficult to identify in punk, in hardcore and in the new wave, as well as in the most rough metal.
A cauldron in which different groups come together such as Killing Joke, Husker Dü, Buzzcocks or Helmet, but which mainly has the standard bearers of the new industrial movement as a natural reference, which in those years had decidedly turned towards more metal sounds, such as Prong, The Young Gods and Ministry. The punk trends of the first releases are updated and channeled into a chaotic and full of nuance exuberance, with the only purpose of making as much noise as possible, and it is this attitude that makes a homogeneous disc “nurso” in its development, the result of an irrepressible youth irrelevant. There are no excessively catchy moments inside, only speed, anger and frenzy, square songs that follow one another without too many concessions to the melody and commercial success, which will also arrive shortly thereafter, is not yet in the programs. The riffs are always pungent, at times even ungooted, led by a dry drumming and full of grooves, while Cairns' voice is angular enough to create a sort of annoyance; From a compositional point of view, there are no striking compositional peaks and let alone variety of moods between one episode and the other, but what stands out is a swirling communicative urgency and, despite these premises, they fear the opposite, each piece seems to have its own precise identity.
The hit is certainly “Teethgrinder” which, among syncopated guitars, samples and tribal rhythms, has been used even as the theme of some television broadcasts for the years; Another rather captivating moment is the initial “nausea”, introduced by Urlo “Here I am, Motherfucker“!” And a refrain that defining Catchy is reductive. The long ballad “gone” can be seen as a taste of the greater opening that will reserve the future, with that indolent trend attributable to certain atmospheres of acoustic grunge, “Deep Sleep” has a dub beat and is irregular as something of the primus. The closure is entrusted to “Hypermania”, which surprises for its links with classic metal. The production is still dirty, but clearly more cared for the first two ep.
“Nurse” is a raw diamond, the album that comes just before the definitive explosion, to bridge the heroic beginnings of a small band from the remote Nordirus province and the notoriety that will reach deserved and, as often happens on these occasions, is the photograph of a state of grace of which, in retrospective, it can be measured with more lucidity the scope and whose acerbo charm also affects to thirty years abundantly away.
The next step will be “Troublegum”, with more than a million copies sold and with the well -known “Screamager”, “Nowhere” and all the other singles that could be heard on any alternative radio, with the relative rotation videos on MTV: the notoriety of Therapy? In those years he grows dramatically, facilitated by the transversality of a proposal that likes different categories of public, but the starting point will remain “nurso”, with all his naivety and his defects.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-r4ecxkxr6q