Thursday, August 2, 2007

Quiz #48 - Therapy? "Diane"

The deadline for this quiz is Thursday - August the 9th.

As always, leave your answers in the comment form.

UPDATED:

By constantly expanding upon a frame of influential references that included the usual suspects (Black Sabbath) and the not-so-usual for a metal band (Killing Joke, Hüsker Dü, Buzzcocks), Therapy? released a number of records that constantly challenged themselves and their fans. The band carried a melodic sensibility that also separated them from their alternative metal peers, and although Andy Cairns' lyrical exorcisms were often clichéd, they were never innocuous. As the bridge between Metallica and Nirvana, they never played it straight or safe.

The band had a fair amount of momentum after the success of "Troublegum", but "Infernal Love" seemed to leave that concept in the dust. Darker chords and slower tempos prevail, and the pop-punk hooks are all but washed away. The sequentially buried, bouncing "Loose" is an anomaly, sounding like a refugee from "Troublegum" that reads like a dystopian "Jack and Diane." Other than that, it's nothing but despair and heartache. What makes "Infernal Love" misunderstood is the musical depth, which is easy to miss from the endless doom. It's not one-dimensional at all, buoyed by mournful strings and stylistic curveballs. "Bad Mother" and "Stories" skank along in staccato rhythm, with the verses of the latter aided by swanky saxophones. "Bowels of Love" sounds like Andy Cairns and the Bad Seeds. If that's not enough of a departure, a cover of Hüsker Dü's "Diane" is nothing but voice and strings. David Holmes stitches everything together masterfully, employing numerous atmospheric effects and random trickery to give the record a cinematic flourish. If this is what Therapy? had in mind, the band hit the bullseye.

[source 1]
[source 2]



Therapy? "Diane"
Album "Infernal Love" - 1995













3 comments:

Cassandra said...

Therapy? - Diane
I so love this song...

objectValues said...

omg! Therapy?

I know this song so well but no chance I could recognize the video...

btw, I've been in Bucharest in Fire Club for Therapy? ... Great concert :)

objectValues said...

well, he looked different last time I saw him :)