Therapy?
Semi-Detached

"Troublegum" (1994) was a great album: and probably even the critics who at the time accused the Irish band of becoming bourgeois by leaving (not entirely) behind their noise-industrial past, secretly nodded their heads in satisfaction to the rhythm of that powerful Pixies-Husker-Pop-Metallic mix.

No less notable was the subsequent "Infernal Love", the "dark twin" of the previous one, which, without sacrificing power, accentuated the gothic and decadent shades characteristic of the band, perhaps in a somewhat cloying but fascinating way.

After these two notable works (more precisely, in 1998), the band hired a new guitarist (Martin McCarrick) and recorded this "Semi-Detached", which unfortunately turned out to be a half disappointment.

Yet it's not what you'd call a "bad" album: the ingredients are the same as its illustrious predecessors, moreover enriched with some of the harsher and noisier sounds that had characterized their early works. Probably, the intention of the four Irishmen was to create a "mature album" that precisely provided a compendium of the different sounds explored within their then decade-long career.

At the moment of listening, however, one gets the impression of an album not well in focus, uncertain of the path to take, quite "recycled". The uncertainty that dominates the album is reflected within the individual songs: for example, "Tightrope Walker", which after a promising start in the style of Jesus Lizard self-sinks into an inexplicable "catchy" Blink-182 style chorus that clashes terribly. But, even if the more "noisy" tracks ("Safe", "Tramline") and a good part of those more Troublegum-style don't engage much, the album still contains songs that are memorable, although the feeling of "already heard" is more or less a constant presence: thus the melodic hooks of "Lonely, Crying Only" and "Heaven's Gate", the massive riffs of "Black Eye, Purple Sky", the depressed post-grunge lull of the concluding "The Boy Is Asleep" (a kind of self-plagiarism of "A Moment Of Clarity" present on the previous album, but oh well) and above all the dramatic and intense ride of "Straight Life" (which alone is worth the 3 stars) are there to remind us that class is not water. And also, why not, to make us want to listen to all of "Troublegum" once again.