Group Therapy

Concrete Blonde - Group Therapy

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Music CD Cover

Artist: Concrete Blonde
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2002-01-15
Music Label: Manifesto Records
Soundtracks:

Roxy
Violent
When I Was A Fool
True, Part III
Tonight
Valentine
Your Llorona
Take Me Home
Inside/Outside
Fried
Angel
Memory

Free Music Notes for Group Therapy

Free Music Review: Concrete Blonde Produces Another Great Album
Hit: 5 Stars

While all of Concrete Blonde's albums are excellent, and I would rank each of them beginning with 1989's _Free_ among the very best ever produced, _Group Therapy_ is arguably the band's finest album to date. Johnette Napolitano's voice is more amazing than ever, both live and in the studio. She still has all of her unique power and unsurpassed emotional expressiveness, and has developed even more varied tones from which to draw to create the necessary moods for each particular song. Despite the lack of discrimination of many "critical" lists, the three greatest female vocalists that I have EVER heard are, in no particular order, Janis Joplin, Grace Slick, and Johnette Napolitano. Napolitano is one of the most gifted songwriters of our time, and this album shows that she has continued to expand her creative powers. Her poetic skill is very rare in songwriting. The band's ability to create music that is both beautiful and powerful, yet always varied and original, places them alongside great bands such as the Beatles and the Doors who worked to make each song a unique and important piece, rather than finding a demographic formula and sticking to it, as most bands do, and have always done. Jim Mankey is one of the most skillful and creative guitarists working today. His originality in solos and rhythm patterns is striking. His solos are tremendously effective because he has both a keen understanding of melody and deep emotional expressiveness. Mankey and Napolitano are also expert studio technicians, and they achieve wonderful and unusual "special effects" that add to the depth of the album. Although it is Mankey who delivers the standout bass parts on "Angel" and "Fried," Napolitano is certainly one of the best and most original bass players in rock, using the instrument expressively as a counterpoint to Mankey's guitar. As Eric Clapton once pointed out, the sole measure of musical skill is not the production of a rapid succession of individual notes; the space between the notes can be as important as the notes themselves, and tone and texture are always important. The highly skilled Harry Rushakoff is always effective on drums, playing interesting and powerful parts. _Mexican Moon_ is vastly underrated--in my opinion the best album from anyone in the '90s--but with _Group Therapy_ the band has chosen to craft songs that achieve their emotional effects in ways that could perhaps be described as a greater psychological depth. The album explores an unusually wide variety of moods and musical forms. Napolitano's poetic and melodic skills are superb throughout the album, in such songs as the ironic attack on the corporate media's desensitization of audiences "Violent," her poignantly beautiful confrontation of the idea of death "True, Part III," and the magical landscapes of "Tonight." The lyrics of the great rock song "Valentine" are a miniature mythological image of female strength in the face of betrayal. "Fried" is one of my personal favorites. The song operates on several levels, beginning as an anthem for intelligent youth trapped in an oppressive and intellectually sterile environment, moving into truly sublime poetry about the power and mystery of love, and ending with a subtle and intensely powerful display of Napolitano's unsurpassed blues/soul singing abilities. The song's reference to the famous quotation regarding the "doors of perception" reminds the reader to pay close attention to the context of the statement in William Blake's "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell" (1790). "Angel" achieves its soaring, mesmerizing effects with terse yet intensely profound verse, exemplifying the assertion of Lord Bacon, "There is no exquisite beauty without some _strangeness_ in the proportion." The aesthetic effects of the album are directed to both the intellectual and the emotional perceptions of the listener. Every song is excellent and interesting in very different ways, and yet the album has a satisfying continuity and unity. Throughout _Group Therapy_ Napolitano displays an intense awareness that while songs may be written and performed for many purposes, serious art enthusiasts demand a depth of insight and expression that shows that the artist has explored the most important aspects of life, striving to apprehend the beautiful and to grapple with the painful and disturbing. _Concrete Blonde_ has continued to explore new vistas of artistic creation on each new album, and _Group Therapy_ is another superb production by one of the best bands of our time--and of any time.

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Group Therapy Poster

'Group Therapy' features 12 new recordings from all original members Johnette Napolitano, Jim Mankey, and Harry Rushakoff. This is their first new album in 7 years, since 1994's 'Mexican Moon'. Manifesto Records.

Practice is said to make perfect, but perspective is arguably just as important. Group Therapy, Concrete Blonde's first new record after an eight-year hiatus, shows that original band members Johnette Napolitano, Jim Mankey, and Harry Rushakoff have gained some of just that. They've stepped out of the shadow of the Pretenders and shrugged off the Goth overtones that characterized their last commercially successful record (1990's Bloodletting), and have found that the balance between stylizing and emulating comes from putting personality--not posturing--first. Group Therapy opens with the radio single "Roxy," a tribute in form and content to Eno-era Roxy Music. With a pastiche of lyrics delivered in Napolitano's strong, throaty voice, the song sets the stage for a dozen tracks ranging in style from adult-oriented rock tunes to truck-stop country ballads to angry rock ragers about growing up and getting real. Though they occasionally read like high school poetry, the lyrics are redeemed by the sincerity of the band's performance. Group Therapy is dynamic and accessible enough to gain the band new listeners while giving old fans the sort of exciting Concrete Blonde music they've waited for since Bloodletting. --Sarah A. Sternau