So Much For The Ten Year Plan: A Retrospective 1990-2000

A band to be admired for their unstructured and contrary attitude to their career, Therapy? really know how to give the corporate world the finger.

The selected highlights on this compilation tell the tale: the dark and grimacing self-released ‘Meat Abstract’, which got them their first deal; the James Joyce name-checking hilarity of ‘Potato Junkie’, one of the finest moments of their early arse-baring live shows – and so on.

Just as grunge broke in ‘92 they cut their hair and started edging towards punk with their major label debut, Nurse. From ‘94’s punk-pop tour-de-forceTroublegum, songs like ‘Screamager’ and ‘Nowhere’ are strongly redolent of the heady honeymoon period of hits, ball-busting tours and counting Wynona Ryder as one of their biggest fans.

For the follow-up, with the likes of Green Day breaking big, Andy and the boys elected to indulge in a spot of gothic balladry (the bizarre cello-draped version of Hüsker Du’s ‘Diane’ sticks out like a bloody thumb here).

For 1998’s Semi-detached, it was line-up changes and panicking record companies ahoy, with ‘Straight Life’ one of the better tracks from a very unfocused period. Coming back to form last year with a new deal and the snarling Suicide Pact – You First, the whole process of surviving the 90’s as a rock band is parodied on the song ‘Ten Year Plan’. The brand new tracks are good, too, particularly ‘The Stooges-like ‘Fat Camp’ and ‘Bad Karma Follows You Around’ which boasts the big dumb rock energy of mashed-up AC/DC, with a dash of New York Dolls added.

So much for the potted history, though, as the retrospective is not chronological but has a track-listing that hops and swerves manically around key-points in Therapy?’s twisted career path. Make of that what you will!