KOOB Breaks the Rules, and the Silence, With ‘Therapist’

There’s a reason KOOB is fast becoming one of Europe’s most vital jazz innovators—she doesn’t just write songs, she crafts emotional experiences.

Her latest single, “Therapist,” the first from her forthcoming album Off Head, takes listeners deep into a mental whirlwind, capturing the push and pull between resistance and vulnerability. Born during a disorienting moment on Berlin’s S-Bahn, the track is infused with overstimulation, strange clarity, and a jolt of existential comedy—all filtered through KOOB’s genre-eluding style.

From the first disjointed rhythm to the closing surge of release, “Therapist” is an unpredictable beast. Percussion stutters like a misfiring brain circuit; horns erupt then vanish; synths flutter like anxious thoughts. But at the center is KOOB’s voice—urgent, raw, and insistent. Her delivery is more than singing—it’s excavation. Every syllable seems torn from a place too intimate to name, yet instantly familiar to anyone who's wrestled with mental fatigue in an unrelenting world.

Her lyrics are a study in contradiction. “I don’t need help,” she asserts, but the music betrays her—fractured, splintered, then briefly luminous. That emotional schism is where the song lives. KOOB walks a razor’s edge between defiance and breakdown, and somehow invites us to dance along it. It’s reminiscent of the raw poetry of Akua Naru and the structural audacity of Hiatus Kaiyote, yet unmistakably KOOB in her brutal honesty.

The track’s finale offers a kind of grace. After all the chaos, the song clicks into something unexpectedly euphoric—tight, full-bodied, almost celebratory. It’s not neat closure, but it’s a catharsis earned. The way KOOB and her band harness free-form improvisation into such a satisfying climax speaks volumes about their musicianship and chemistry. Recorded live in Berlin, the authenticity pulses through every second.

With “Therapist,” KOOB captures the zeitgeist of emotional disarray and makes it sound like liberation. It’s a staggering piece of music—part confession, part rebellion, all soul. As the first taste of Off Head, it leaves us hungry for more of KOOB’s chaos, courage, and craft.