Fruits of the gloom

I love a review that turns me on to a new album - but arguably even better is a retrospective assessment that encourages me to revisit something old and familiar with fresh ears. Such is the case with JR Moores' recent piece on Therapy?'s Semi-Detached for the Quietus, to mark the album's long-overdue issue on vinyl in the year it turns 25.

Moores' thesis is that, overshadowed by the similarly millennial-angsty OK Computer, "Andy Cairns' state-of-the-nation prophetic genius has been criminally overlooked". Sure enough, I hadn't listened to Semi-Detached in years, but his suggestion that it's "one of the most misanthropic albums of the late 90s" rings true. There's a focus and directness that distinguishes it from the frilly-shirted cocaine blizzard of its predecessor Infernal Love. As Moores notes, 'Black Eye, Purple Sky' is about a brutal hangover the morning after the night before - but that might as well serve as a metaphorical description of Semi-Detached as a whole.

First track and lead single 'Church Of Noise' makes an instant impact, and 'Tightrope Walker' and especially 'Lonely, Cryin', Only' are prime examples of Therapy?'s remarkable ability to marry melody with metal chug (incidentally, an ability they've not lost - just listen to this year's Hard Cold Fire for proof). Even at its heaviest, lyrically and sonically, on 'Safe', Semi-Detached still pulls a corking chorus out of the bag.

Returning to the record after so many years, I was particularly taken aback by the feral, relentless, unhinged chaos of 'Tramline'. "I'm getting swallowed up in all of this / And the last thing I need is some rock star bullshit", howls Cairns, clear-sighted after the post-Troublegum excess and feeling like a man being eaten alive by the music industry - perhaps channelling the thoughts of former drummer Fyfe Ewing, who had bailed in 1996.

Even more surprising, though, was the album's slow, subdued final track 'The Boy's Asleep' - I had to check carefully that the vocals on the verse weren't supplied by Arab Strap's Aidan Moffat.

Troublegum will probably always be my go-to Therapy? album, but this enjoyable refresher should serve as a prompt to pull one of their other records off the shelf once in a while.