The three piece which comprised guitarist and vocalist Andy Cairns, drummer Fyfe Ewing and bass guitarist Michael McKeegan had the job ahead of them. Cairns, as the majority stakeholder in the song writing, was the one who everyone was looking at as to what he would come up with next. What the band brought forward was a seismic deviation from the punk-metal alternative sound that they had produced on “Troublegum” to a sound that incorporated many different ideals and segues, one that almost completely differentiated it from the album that had brought them to international attention. The question that was to be asked was, did this album’s skewing of its sound have the potential to bring in more fans from a different base, or did it risk alienating all of the new fans they had just collated from their previous album. That question could only be answered once the album hit the shelves, which “Infernal Love” did in June of 1995.
There will always be unfortunate comparisons of this album to its predecessor, and that is especially true of the beginning o the album. Because the first four songs on “Troublegum” are insanely intense, fast, heavy, angry. They set that album up for what came next, dragged in the listener kicking and screaming, and kept them enthralled to the end. Most would have come to “Infernal Love” looking for exactly the same beginning, hoping it was just as marvellous.
The album does open at a cracking pace, with “Epilepsy” coming out of the speakers likely an angry Jimmy Page riff and John Bonham drum crash and smash. It ain’t Robert Plant singing mind you, and the lyrics are pretty sparse and deliberate, but it comes at you with the intensity you would be hoping for. It’s also a great bass riff through this song as well. Andy Cairns integrates that angst and anger straight into the mix as fans were hoping for, and it is a great opening to the album. This is followed up by “Stories”, the angsty warning against hope, the driven vocal line of “Happy people have no stories” creating the key to the song. The parallels to the same number track on the previous album are obvious, with “Stories” playing up to the same themes as “Screamager” on that album, the singalong chorus an automatic crowd pleaser, and the angst and desolation of the moody teenagers embedded in the track. So far, “Infernal Love” is two for two and sounding great.
The change in this album from the previous comes with “A Moment of Clarity”. This is more Joy Division than anger and heavy. It dials the music back, and Cairns showcases a different side to his vocals that we haven’t really heard before. It is a fork in the road, the point of difference that this album was no doubt looking for. Stretching out to six minutes, fading in and out of slight aggression to pure desolate angst, it is a story in itself, a moment where the band treads new territory. It also separates the fans in regards to what they were expecting and what they wanted. More of the same with “Jude the Obscene”, a more mainstream guitar and drum riff throughout and Andy’s vocals as well. There is less punky metal here than there is alternative, the short and sharp solo from Cairns is actually building to something significant before being cut short to get back into the verse chorus of the song. Then comes “Bowels of Love”, with more of the cello brought in, Andy’s angst crying vocals return as the cry for help he sounds like he is asking for on this album. There is more of the Joy Division styled here once again, perhaps overplaying the style for the sake of abandoning the metal style of the previous album.
“Misery” restores a little of the more recognisable Therapy? sound with a solid and recognisable riff and more exciting drum beat and bass line, with the vocals also being more proactive again with a forceful reply rather than a dry mournful rise. “Bad Mother” starts with another recognisable riff and vocal tone, with the depressing lyrics drowning in Andy’s distinctive sad vocal style. Andy’s guitar that again mirrors The Clash here is overwhelmed by the emotionally charged doubling of vocals through to the end of the track. The arrival of “Me vs You” is perhaps the most significant difference of music and songs on this album. This drains you of your will to live with the dire and post-mortem-like hopelessness of both the lyrics and music on this track. If you want a track that will send you to the absolute depths of depression, then this is the one. It is perfectly written for that purpose. And that’s great if that is what you are coming to this album for. And for me, it is where the album both succeeds and fails. Because I don’t look for an album to send me into fits of depression, I want an album to lift me OUT of that state.
“Loose” at least achieves that to a certain degree. It is very reminiscent of the kind of alternative songs that found their way into circulation through the mid-to-late 1990’s often on teenage movie soundtracks such as for “Empire Records” and “Can’t Hardly Wait”. If that was what they were aiming for, then mission completed. Then comes the most played and most popular song n the album, the cover of the Husker Du song “Diane”. But unlike the post punk original version, this is performed entirely with acoustic guitars and the introduction of the cello. And while this version of “Diane” has been regarded as a high water mark in the band’s career – well, it just doesn’t do it for me. To me it is the almost ultimate weak link of the album. Sure, it created yet another highlight of the different direction the band looked to try out with “Infernal Love”, and probably that’s why I’m not a fan of it. The album then concludes with “30 Seconds”, where the pace quickens up for one of the few times along the way, the band draws inspiration from the actual Husker Du catalogue musically, and while repeating over and over, “there is a light at the end of the tunnel”, is it only because the album has come to its final conclusion?
I was one of the people who discovered this band on their previous album. It was in that blackout year of 1995, when I was lucky enough to see the band on their only Australian tour when they played at the Alternative Nation festival at Eastern Creek in Western Sydney in 1995. I had gone to see them only based on the poster that hung on the wall of Adam Sandler’s characters wall in the movie “Airheads”, and they were awesome. Within a week I had bought their two previous albums, but I was completely hooked on “Troublegum” from the outset. It became an album that helped get me through that year and has been tied closely to me ever since. "Infernal Love" was released some three months after that festival, and having submerged myself in “Troublegum” for that entire time, this new album coming on so close to the time that I had first discovered the band was exceptionally good timing for me. Or so I thought.
So, I bought the CD, brought it home, and got myself prepared for “Troublegum” Part 2. That was a massive error on my part. The single, “Stories”, grabbed me effortlessly. But beyond that, I really didn't have a clue as to what I had stumbled upon. There were moments here that I could listen to and enjoy, but even those felt like they were… off. They just weren’t what I had come to love from the band. There was angst here, but the outright anger mostly seemed to have evaporated. And, as I was still in the year of 1995, I really wanted or perhaps needed that anger from the band. And it wasn’t here. And what really did it for me was the cover of Husker Du’s “Diane”, replete with cellos and saxophone and without the real power that the original gave us. I just didn’t relate and couldn’t connect with what this album was compared to the one I had just fallen into obsession with. So I gave it a dozen listens, and it fell into the pile of CDs that I had bought that then found themselves on the outer.
Over the years, I have returned to this album on any number of occasions. Because I really wanted to like it. I wanted to find what it was that had sparked the writing of this album and be able to connect with it on the same level as the previous album. And I have never been able to do that. It is simply a different album, heading in a new direction, and that’s fine. As a band, and as an artist, I imagine Andy was not looking to get pigeonholed in the style that had created such popularity for his band. I needed more from it when I first bought it, and since then I have WANTED more from it than it has to offer me.
It came off the shelves again this week as I sat down to compose this podcast episode, and once again I found myself hoping that I had changed enough to find where the secret of this album lay. I once again really wanted to like it, to be able to say that after 30 years I had cracked the code and found what makes this album one that is worth listening to. And once again I found myself disappointed. Yes, the same songs that I could listen to back when I first bought the album were the same ones I could find myself listening to again. But beyond that, it just feels like an average album. There’s nothing wrong with that, the majority of artists out there would kill to have an average album. I just wanted so much more for this to be better than that.
Therapy? is still going, and every album I am waiting for the next “Troublegum”. That’s extremely unfair on the band, but there you have it. They got close with a couple of albums down the track. And while “Infernal Love” is only an average album with a couple to a few songs that are worth listening to, no doubt at some stage in the future I will go through this charade again, all in the hope that I will find a love for this album.
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