Shameless

Putting their old ten-year plan firmly behind them, Therapy? turn in their sixth full length album with a set of raucous Kerrang! pleasers. Keeping it nice and raw with fuzzy guitars and scuzzed-up vocals, they blithely kick out Stooges and Ramones-influenced workouts like recent single ‘Gimme Back My Brain,’ and tussle with a Jane’s Addiction style on ‘I Am The Money.’ There’s the usual quotient of dark humour on songs like ‘Tango Romeo,’ with the recurring theme of laughing gleefully in the face of danger. ‘Joey’ is a dual tribute to the late Joey Dunlop and Joey Ramone, a boisterous rush of racing motorcycles and guitars, name-checking a variety of fast and hard-living heroes like George Best and Hurricane Higgins along the way.

While the band audibly struggle for lift-off on tracks like ‘Dance’ and ‘Theme From Delorean’, they definitely possess enough enthusiasm for old-fashioned rock ‘n’ roll to prevent the album falling flat on its arse. While some numbers are lacking a bit of catchy melodic oomph, there are striking elements, like the low snarling guitars on songs like ‘Body Bag Girl’ and ‘This One’s For You’, featuring the bloody marvellous Francis Bacon quote “Champagne for my real friends, real pain for my sham friends.” I also liked the feckless flourishes, here and there, such as the glam handclaps and spiralling guitars on ‘Endless Psychology’ and the sardonic “yeah yeahs” on ‘Alrite,’

I wouldn’t call it Therapy? at their lovable best, but it’s certainly not bad.