Album Review: Therapy? Greatest Hits (2020 Version)

As part of their 30th birthday celebrations, NI national treasures Therapy? have dusted off their greatest hits for this head-cracking compilation – a must-buy for both completists and the curious. Recorded in one day in Abbey Road via the Albini method (each track gets three takes), the collection serves as a timely reminder of the power, and indeed importance of Andy Cairns and co.

The most striking aspect is that the music sounds as fresh and vital now as it did when first released in the early to mid-’90s, which is partly down to the evergreen trio’s impassioned performances (‘Teethgrinder,’ Trigger Inside’). The collaboration with Manic Street Preachers’ James Dean Bradfield on ‘Die Laughing’ puts a welcome new spin on an old favourite, while metal/punk/indie mongrel ‘Turn’ is brilliantly menacing.

Standalone single ‘Opal Mantra’, meanwhile, remains among the most explosive moments in Irish music. As for the glass-ceiling busting ‘Screamager’ – if you’re not instantly impaled by that hook, there’s no hope for you.

Check out Therapy? on Spoitfy!