Cheap Therapy or Open Heart Surgery?

New Album: Gavin Bowers' Cheap Therapy

Upfront, I have to declare an interest.  I met Gavin Bowers soon after lockdowns became history and we have kept in touch ever since about any new music in town, his projects, always promising to meet soon.  We've both been busy adapting to changing circumstances, just like everybody else, so the 'soon' has been stretched a little.  We both came to Norwich with our respective plans, but Life happens and priorities get reconfigured.  However, we are both still here and keep making that 'catch-up soon' promise, whenever our crazy-paving paths cross.  So, I was delighted to hear from Gavin that he had been working on a solo project, in which he has been relaying his path into some semblance of order, or least trying to make some honest sense of it. His debut solo album Cheap Therapy is the result. It is now available on all digital platforms, as well as in a limited run of vinyl pressings.

I reviewed the single release of Our Flame a few weeks ago and have then been lucky enough to have been sent a pre-release of the LP recording Cheap Therapy.  This is a complete album, definitely worth listening to from beginning to end in a single sitting.  I understand that the way music is being consumed is said to be a little different to the old days, but in reality it is not changed much.

As a teenager, I could only afford to buy singles and would play them to death, in no set order, choosing what to spin depending on my mood.  Mix tapes were possible a little later with a cassette recorder and Sony Walkman. These mix tapes were compiled to a theme, for personal use or for a friend, no different to a self-curated playlist. BBC Radio 1 and Radio Luxembourg DJs were the shuffle option.  When I had a bit more money and time (and boy, do you have a lot of time as a teenager), I would listen to albums, or go to see friends and listen to different albums, but we didn't swap LPs. We couldn't afford the physical product to go AWOL. What's so different now, I wonder.  

Bowers has put this album together with a full understanding of all this from an industry perspective. This means that there is a stack of great tunes on Cheap Therapy, that each can stand alone, fit the so-called short-attention span.  Each of his songs here has legs and rewards repeated listening, just like any fine single should. Each track is a coherent number and everyone will have their own favourites.  With all music, your pleasure and connection depends on the environment you move in when you first hear it, the mood of the moment.  All of these nine tracks have a hook to draw you in, but how you get caught will be up to where you are emotionally.

The danger of putting together a multi-faceted album like this, is that one might end up with a bag of pick'n'mix.  I am pretty certain that Gavin worried long and hard to avoid cooking up a dog's dinner, because what he has produced here has a beautiful flow and a solid coherence, authentically capturing the complexity of changing horses in mid-stream.  Lost hopes, broken dreams and fears are presented in a series of heart-felt lyrics that lay out the way it is after the sad event.  On this album, he acknowledges the crooked way life sometimes unravels. Perhaps, most importantly, the album is about acceptance of how things are now very different.

The opening track New Beginnings (featuring Oliver Andrews) has that surprisingly jaunty feel to a heart-break song which throws the listener's perceptions. Listen to the music and you'll want to dance, listen to the lyrics and you'll recognise that you have probably been there at some point, whether from break-up, bereavement, or possibly even redundancy in the work-place.  It could even be the sound-track to the advance of A.I. The track ends with a pro-longed slowing synth phrase which undeniably leans into the fear of having to start yourself up again, somehow.

The single Our Flame follows. I wanted this track to be longer. It features a Bowers playing a wistful introductory guitar solo leading, into a song honestly reflecting on how self-deception and belief in Love being able to conquer all, can mist up the wind-screen and obscure the true lie of the land. A great song.

My Father's Son is a track I wanted to skip, for no other reason than it poses too many questions I need to address myself.  And so the album continues.  Reflections, questions and some challenge, but not angry, a little sad.  The collection is about coming to terms with unwanted changes, having to rebuild and develop new plans, hoping to not repeat previously repeated mistakes.

Musically, the tracks sit together very well. The changes in texture and pace flow neatly. Changes in instrumental complexity are woven though the track listing.  Play Feeling Something, or any track at random, but overall you'll understand the album best when you make time to hear it all, in the artist's defined track sequence. 

The album concludes with the faster tempo, rocky Suburban Love Story, followed by calmer, acoustic guitar-based, Clarity.  Which is a settling down after the emotional roller coaster of the previous eight songs.  Clarity is what anyone involved in uncertain times seeks. Sadly, the clarity sought may not be the clarity found, as clarity can also mean a firmly closed door.

Gavin Bowers is someone who works incredibly long hours to constantly refine his musical and production skills and the quality of this album, Cheap Therapy in all respects, is reward for all the hard yards he has travelled, in music and in life. See you soon, promise.

Released on Catch 21 Records, Cheap Therapy is out now in all formats.

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Spencer Ide

8th April, 2026