One of the hardiest, hard-working bands of the last thirty years, Therapy? show no signs of slowing down and Hard Cold Fire (their sixteenth full-length album) sees a band completely at home with their own abilities, direction and status.
With the band having steadily produced a string of quality albums throughout their career, fans will debate their favourites but it was universally acknowledged (with both fans and critics) that their most recent album (Cleave released in 2018) was a triumphant celebration of everything modern Therapy? could be. Having had Hold Cold Fire on hold for some time (due to the delayed 30 year anniversary tour), Therapy? must have been eagerly awaiting its release and the reaction of the fans.
The album begins with the uncompromising They Shoot The Terrible Master. Instantly recognisable bass and drums twist in aggressive harmony and we already know we are in safe hands. From the outset, it is clear that the band have lost none of their appetite for obdurately passionate mini-anthems.
Second track Woe opens with an enticing drum pattern, which Neil Cooper delivers with all the confidence and conviction fans of the bands have come to love. It is three minutes of perfectly contained belligerence and (as throughout the album) Andy Cairns sings as well as he ever has and lyrically, the band are in familiar territory. Peace as rare as sleep / Trapped in loops of thought / Strangled by the words / I choke because they’re true.
It is no coincidence that Joy - Woe’s lyrical partner in crime - follows immediately but as you might expect from Therapy? it is no three minute saccharine pop song and tackles the all-consuming ennui that modern life can lead to if it is allowed to overwhelm us. You realise / That you’re stuck with what you’ve got / And that noise? Is the gates of the dream factory slamming shut.
Bewildered Herd swings wildly yet seamlessly between sing along anthem and Therapy?’s more uncomfortable yet beguiling moments of wrath. The track’s attack on widespread consumerism is another example of the trio’s determination to not make a “Covid album”. Eating plastic and lead / In a word plagued by our presence / Why do we force-feed ourselves / When it all tastes of ash? Who needs a Covid album when, unfortunately, there is so much darkness, frustration and angst to draw on for lyrical inspiration. Two Wounded Animals, a slower but no less powerful song, dives deep within the innermost feelings of refugees, brutally confronting the agony felt by those in an unbearable and to most of us, unfathomable situation. Shorn of identity / Shelter / Security / All I want is my dignity / To feel human once again. Throughout the album, Therapy? dare to put into song the most tormented emotions many want to hide away from, like something on the news that is difficult to listen to but all too easy to switch off and ignore.
Mongrel, one of only two songs on the album that are longer than three and a half minutes, tells the story of someone contemplating suicide and the unending feelings of isolation and worthlessness that might lead someone to such a decision. Chugging guitars and Michael McKeegan’s unfailing bass drive home the lyrics in the verses but as only Therapy? can, the chorus, gloomy and macabre lyrically (I’m leaving / Not saying goodbye / I like darkness / And darkness likes me back), is one of the most melodic on the album.
Therapy? have once again teamed up with producer Chris Sheldon, who previously worked on Cleave, High Anxiety and the band’s best known album – Troublegum. Throughout their thirty-plus years in the business, Therapy? have delivered some of the best sounding alt-rock albums and Hard Cold Fire (its name take from Louis MacNeice’s 1931 poem Belfast) is no exception.
At less than two and half- minutes, Poundland of Hope and Glory succinctly delivers it scathing attack on the current state of the country and the green and unpleasant land Cairn’s now sees in everyday life. It’s not Jerusalem / Jerusalem’s a city in the Middle East / Your Jerusalem / Is just another myth. While there are those that would see such a song as diatribe, we only have to look at the turmoil within the NHS, post-Brexit economics or the rise in violent crime to know that everything is not as perfect as William Blake might have us believe.
Rounding off the album with Ugly, a commanding and energetic gallop through the feelings of self-doubt and Days Kollaps, which begins downbeat and introspective but ends majestically and melodically, Therapy?, long masters of understanding song and album length, have perfectly balanced heaviness and accessibility. Capturing the vitality of Troublegum and building on the direction established with Cleave, while maintaining the intensity of an album such as High Anxiety, Hard Cold Fire can be considered one of the best albums of their career.
Too big to be underground but not too big to have felt the need to compromise, Therapy? should be valued like a national treasure….long may they continue.
Watch the video to Poundland of Hope and Glory below.
Written: May 2023
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