Think back to what you were doing 20 years ago. Think back to what music you were listening to. Think back to what clothes you were wearing and what particular coiffure (if any) you were flashing about. Then consider this - Therapy? were, even back then, whipping out their very own brand of abrasive noisy rock-meets-punk-meets-anything goes. And now, think to what you have turned into, 20 years later, how your principles and credo have changed. Then take Therapy?'s new album 'Crooked Timber' and see how they have somehow, against all the odds, managed to keep the personality and soul of their music intact and yet, somehow, also managed to add some freshness and extra Life into it. Well, this is what 'Crooked Timber' is - a band alive and well after many years of travail and trouble and triumph and hardship. That they have preserved their energy and the Fire is nothing short of a miracle, in a time when we don't even know what's reality and what's fixed, staged or cosmetically enhanced. This Andy Gill produced album, the band's 10th full-length effort, is a big and decisive kick in the teeth to those who had written them off for dead and buried. There's still much life in this old warhorse, for certain. The tunes are bloody impressive. The rhythm kills and prevails over the melodies, but this is no bad thing here...at all My personal favourite - 'Magic Mountain' - a 10-minute whirlpool of glorious epic sonic inspiration! Album opener 'The Head That Tried To Strangle Itself' cuts straight to the point and from then on you know you've got one hell of a collection of songs to either fall in love with or fuck off to the sound of. Andy Cairns never pretended to be a fabulous vocal deity. What he does though, more often than not, is deliver all his vocals and lyrics with a sick passion that can only be felt if you have the understanding that bands like Therapy? are out there not for your entertainment, but to balance out all the bullshit we swallow each and every day with something real and truly passionate....