Jim Lea - Therapy (2016)

For many Slade fans Jim Lea remains the enigmatic quiet man of the band, the tortured genius who suffered more than the other members of the band and who has pretty much since Slade went their separate ways in 1992 (Yes they split up waaay back then despite a band using the name still wowing an ageing audience of mullet haired continental aficionados) stayed well out of the limelight. While Noddy Holder has done everything imaginable to reinvent himself as the genial old uncle Noddy figure, and Dave Hill and Don Powell have mercilessly flogged a dead horse into a pantomime donkey, Lea has quietly kept his counsel.

However hot on the heels of last years Slade vinyl collectors box set comes a re-release of Jim Lea's 2007 release 'Therapy' through Wienerworld.

The cynical amongst us will see this release along with the accompanying signed copies and extra bonus signed copies of lyric sheets as Lea cashing in on his name, he doesn't have to of course as most of that has already been done through various pointless re-releases of Slade's back catalogue ever since they split in 92'. But if Holder can do it with impunity, and Hill & Powell continue to drag the Slade name through the mire around the 'oldies circuit' in Europe then Lea is surely entitled to rehash his old stuff and put it out to a very limited demographic of devotee fans who would purchase the proverbial turd in a jar regardless as long as it had the name of one of the band members emblazoned across it.

To be fair, and in Lea's defence, he has added three previously unreleased tracks and a second CD featuring most of the 2002 benefit gig he performed entitled 'Jim Jam' which would please the most ardent of fans but not many others. This release is of course aimed squarely at the completist collectors. It is hard to see to whom else this would appeal to.

In the twilight years of Slade when Holder had moved on mentally and left all of the production to Lea, his slavish adherence to synth driven pap was counter productive and without the monster that was Holder alongside him Slade produced their weakest and most forgettable work, without Holder we got The Dummies, and that is basically what we have here.

Therapy was conceived originally way back in 2002 following on from the death of his father and some would argue that with the original collection of thirteen tracks that made up the LP he had managed to distance himself from the Jim Lea of Slade, he even took to calling himself James Whild Lea...well, it is his name after all!

The tracks offer an insight into Lea's 'tortured' soul and there may be more than a hint of cartharsis throughout as he tackles subjects close to him without too much of an overt wink to his past. The problem with the LP in total is that it doesn't hit any mark accurately enough to warrant repeated plays, yes it's very nice and twee in places, it sounded dated when it was first released and a decade or so later it sounds even more so.