Review of Semi-Detached (1998)

by Craig Young for earpollution (1998)

After a three year hiatus, Irish punksters Therapy? have returned with a new album, new members and a new perspective. But with all the hype surrounding the release, from returning to the same small studio where the Pleasure Death and Babyteeth EPs were recorded, to the return of Troublegum producer Chris Sheldon, something is missing with their music.

And just what that is is difficult to pinpoint.

“I just wanna know / Is it going to be the same? / Friends, we’ve got this one under our belts / So brace yourself.”—Black Eye, Purple Sky

Some might think it had to do with the departure of drummer Fyfe Ewing during the Infernal Love tour. His unique drumming was unmistakable, and was a very noticeable element driving Therapy?’s music. Yet replacement drummer Graham Hopkins, along with the addition of cellist/guitarist Martin McCarrick, have done nothing to take away from the band’s heavy intertwining dissonance of pop, punk, and metal. If anything, it’s given singer/guitarist Andy Cairns more room to experiment with his writing without feeling like most of the burden was on his shoulders.

“I’m clean and I’m clinging / Like I’ve never held on to anything in my life / I’m clean and I’m clinging to you.”—Safe

… powerful, driving songs written with a swagger of pop for good measure, and wrapped around visceral, disconnected and emotionally potent lyrics.

Therapy’s after gig all-night party shenanigans, and especially Andy’s appetite for illicit chemicals, are all well known and documented. Now he’s cleaned himself up, recently got married, and has even gone so far as to shave his goatee and stop dying his hair, both long standing Therapy? icons. Could this be what’s missing? No more women sneaking into the shower and giving blow jobs while on tour? No more inspiration from the bottom of a bottle or a tab on the tip of the tongue? It would seem unlikely, yet still…

“You’re giving up on your saving grace / You’ve got to / Shake off the dirt that drags you / Scrape up some sparks to guide you / And use your arms to bring you back.”—Born Too Soon

So what could it be? Something as small as bassist Michael McKeegan switching to playing an Ernie Ball Music Man bass? Therapy? being released from their A&M contract in the States? The fact that with Semi-Detached being recorded in the right place by the right people under the right circumstances, that everyone was expecting another masterpiece like Troublegum? The fact that we were putting the band up on a dais and expecting them to record another album that sounded just the way we wanted it done?

“I’m getting swallowed up in all of this / And the last thing I need is some Rock Star bullshit.”—Tramline

The fact is, most people were expecting another album along the lines of Troublegum, and that’s not what Semi-Detached is. With all the problems with Fyfe, and the troubles with keeping sober, Infernal Love was essentially, and mistakenly, overlooked as a one-off. Now with the band doing swimmingly well, both collectively and individually, we were all expecting them to turn the rock ’n’ roll time machine back and relive the glory of earlier days.

Having recognized this as being the problem all along, another look at Semi-Detached reveals a complex, diverse, and overall, a well written album.

Sonically, the band is still very powerful. While pieces like Lonely, Cryin’, Only and Heaven’s Gate veer towards the commercial pop side of music that makes us all shudder, other songs like Tightrope Walker, Safe, and Tramline build and push towards the heavy without becoming cumbersome. McKeegan’s bassline during the turnaround of Tightrope Walker still gets stuck in my head at the strangest times (and I don’t think it’s because of his new bass). Cairns’s lyrics drift and dwell, moving from love to loss to confusion to hate and anger—everything that we would expect from him. Maybe lines like “Slush puppies foul pavements/Ice cream cones come up on their pagers” don’t compare to “Masturbation saved my life” off the Troublegum song Femtex (to compare relative lows and highs). Still, the emotion and the critical delivery are there, as is evidenced throughout the album if one gives it room to breathe on its own.

Therapy? are not going to deliver us another Troublegum, and to expect them to is to expect disappointment with every new release. What they have shown us capable of doing is delivering all the essential elements we expect from them—powerful, driving songs written with a swagger of pop for good measure, and wrapped around visceral, disconnected and emotionally potent lyrics.

Semi-Detached can indeed stand well enough on it’s own. And while I find myself skipping over Don’t Expect Roses, and occasionally Church Of Noise, I still like to go back and listen to the lullaby of The Boy’s Asleep a second and third time.

“Thanks for coming / Mind your step on the way home / The roads are busy / Tonight just pick the ones you know.”—The Boy’s Asleep

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