Therapy (Anne-Marie album)

Planning for Anne-Marie's second album began in 2019; in an interview with Music Week in March of that year, she provided information on her upcoming second studio album, stating "I love the studio. I was able to get in there and have some sort of therapy with my own brain for a week and that's going towards the next album". She further commented that "the first album was made up of so many songs that people had heard for years and that's amazing. But for me as a creative person, I'm writing something new all the time and all I want to do is put it out straight away. That wasn't the way it happened with [the debut] album so, for this next one, I'm hoping to be more active on writing and put something out straight away that's fresh and no one's heard before."[2]

During 2020, Anne-Marie released the standalone singles "Birthday", "Her", "To Be Young" (featuring American singer and rapper Doja Cat) and "Problems",[3] with "Birthday" and "To Be Young" later appearing on the Japanese edition of Therapy.

On 15 January 2021, Anne-Marie released the lead single of Therapy, "Don't Play", in collaboration with British YouTuber and rapper-singer KSI and English DJ and producer Digital Farm Animals.[4] On 9 April 2021, the second single "Way Too Long" was released in collaboration with English producer Nathan Dawe and British rapper MoStack.[5] On 21 May 2021, the third single "Our Song", a collaboration with Niall Horan, was released.[6] On that date, Anne-Marie announced the title, cover art, and release date of Therapy.[7] She later announced that she would embark on the Dysfunctional Tour in 2022, and Therapy: The Live Experience on 7 August 2021 in support of the album.[8][9]

On 6 July 2021, via Twitter, Anne-Marie created a website that involved her fans/followers to figure out the track-listing for the album, with new ones appearing daily.[10][11]

On 7 July 2021, random followers were sent DMs of one of two snippets of a song along with parts of the title. The track was revealed to be "Kiss My (Uh-Oh)" with British girlband Little Mix on 8 July 2021. The song samples "Never Leave You (Uh Oooh, Uh Oooh)" by Lumidee. The track was announced as the album's fourth single on 9 July 2021 along with its release date being 23 July 2021.[12] A snippet of the song was released on TikTok. The cover was revealed on Anne-Marie's social media on 21 July 2021. On the day of release the song was accompanied by a music video was directed by Hannah Lux Davis. The music video parodies the 2011 comedy film Bridesmaids.

Therapy was described by music critics as a genre-hopping pop album that draws influence from trance, indie, electronic, trap, UK garage, and pop rock.[1][13] The opener, "x2", begins as a soulful song before turning into a revenge track.[1][14] Lead single "Don't Play" was described as a 2-step-influenced UK garage track about heartache.[15][16] "Kiss My (Uh-Oh)", a collaboration with Little Mix, was described as a calypso-pop number that was compared to the works of Beyoncé.[15][14] It samples "Never Leave You (Uh Oooh, Uh Oooh)" by Lumidee.[13] "Who I Am" was described as a pop song with lyrics of defiance and self-acceptance.[15][14] "Unlovable", a collaboration with Rudimental, is a "fist-pumping" dance track.[1] "Beautiful" sees the singer detailing her own insecurities over what NME described as swaying percussion.[1] The tracks "Tell Your Girlfriend" and "Better Not Together" both contain lyrics about turning heartbreak into self-confidence.[1] The title track serves as the closer for the album, being a trop-pop number.[15]

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	65/100[18]
Review scores
Source	Rating
Clash	7/10[15]
The Guardian	[13]
The Irish Times	[14]
NME	[1]
musicOMH	[19]
Pitchfork	5.4/10[20]
The Telegraph	[21]
Spectrum Culture	[22]
The Arts Desk	[23]

At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, Therapy has an average score of 65 based on six reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[18]

Ali Shutler of NME compared it favourably to her debut album, writing that while her previous effort "spent too much time playing it safe", "its follow-up Therapy doesn't make the same mistake". Referring to the record as "infinitely more confident" sonically, Shutler gave the album four out of five stars.[1] Robin Murray, writing for Clash, was similarly favourable, rating the album seven out of ten. Murray wrote that the album "pushes her story to its next chapter, and while it features some surging highs, it doesn't quite dispel notions that Anne-Marie has yet to nail down a singular sound she can call her own".[15] Ben Devlin of musicOMH gave the album four out of five stars writing, "her newest record is packed to the brim with famous faces on vocals, songwriting and production, but her relatable, unpretentious, sometimes playful delivery holds disparate sounds and moods together with ease."[19]

Lauren Murphy, writing for The Irish Times was slightly more mixed, criticising songs such as "Beautiful" and "Better Not Together", but states "the majority [of the tracks] land with a thud rather than a glance here".[14] Dani Blum of Pitchfork dubbed the album "crisply rendered [and] competently hooky", noting that it "promises a more personal self-portrait, but [the British singer] ends up disappearing into vague songwriting and anodyne dance-pop production."[20] Michael Cragg of The Guardian was more negative, referring to the album as a "missed opportunity", criticising the amount of collaborators on the album for overshadowing the singer, while preferring the "moments when Anne-Marie's brand of plain-spoken yet vulnerable pop shines through". He ultimately rated the album two out of five stars.[13]

In its first charting week, Therapy opened at number-two on the UK Albums Chart with sales of 18,260, of which 12,463 were physical copies.[24]

Credits adapted from Tidal.[35][36]

Musicians

Technical

Artwork