Maverick (UK) – September 2009
The Tyrants In Therapy – HIGH CLASS TRASH
Emotional Coathanger EC 6303-09

****Wild and witty pop fun

I can’t remember when an album has delivered such an unadulterated good time and indeed as much sheer fun as the new Tyrants In Therapy offering. HIGH CLASS TRASH they call it and high class trash is exactly what it is.

Rooted in electro-pop and the genre that dare not speak its name, disco, Abbe Kanter and Michael J take gleeful delight in ignoring boundaries and taboos both musical and lyrical to cook up seventy-five minutes of musical high jinks.

Mindless fun this isn’t though. Words Like That points up the absurdity of (often self-imposed) censorship, BS Hollywood (you know what it stand for) nails another, admittedly easy, target, the title track is a pop at those with more money than class and My Masculinity (sung by Abbe) challenges expectations of gender and behaviour.

But it’s the fun stuff that lingers in the mind longest though, with songs like Apocalypso (which is, naturally, a calypso about the end of the world) and Zodiac worming their way into the listeners’ subconscious and setting up house. All of this is set to wildly catchy tunes and boasts singalong choruses to die for, with snippets of country, punk, blues and whatever else you care to mention, often all in the same song, delivered at breathtaking speed. It shouldn’t work but it does.

Trashy, ephemeral, serious and not at all serious, Tyrants In Therapy make perfect pop music. Check your ennui at the door and party! JS