Clinic Albums (7)
What The Critics Say
Clinic chug along like a coal-burning engine churning out thick black smoke on Do It!, working further into their cryptically dour art-punk/psych/soul/folk niche. Granted, that's a pretty specific niche, but as on their previous album, Visitations, it feels more like a groove than a rut. More than most bands, Clinic write songs in styles, and Do It! features most of their quintessential types: the excellent "Corpus Christi" is a menacing, whispery slow-burner like Walking with Thee's "Come into Our Room" before it, with a singsong lilt that makes it all the creepier; "Emotions" is one of Clinic's soulful ballads, this time boasting a thick fuzz bassline that runs through the song like a scratch; and "Shopping Bag" is this album's version of the band's noise-punk outbursts, now with a shrieking saxophone solo. While Do It! doesn't abandon Clinic's well-defined sound and approach, it does underscore how they innovate within their self-imposed limitations, even if they don't make radical changes. Almost suffocating distortion is one of Do It!'s main motifs, along with songs that swing from mood to mood rapidly. "Memories" uses both, shifting from heavy, ugly, deeply acidic psych-garage riffs to melancholy organs and autoharps as Ade Blackburn intones "Memories are all you own" (though it sounds more like he's singing "Memories are all you're on," comparing thoughts to drugs à la the Electric Prunes' "I Had Too Much to Dream Last Night"). "Free Not Free" is nearly as trippy, jumping between brash riffs and mellow flutes while setting lyrics like "when the hoax is in the mirror" to one of the album's prettiest melodies. All of this is to say that despite Do It!'s direct name, Clinic are as elliptical as ever. They're rarely better than when they're telling someone off, even if they do it so cryptically that the feeling is the only thing that translates. "High Coin" sounds like the perfect soundtrack to skewering a voodoo doll, its sinister organ drones giving words such as "You stitch who you always wanted/Now your thoughts begin to fray" an extra malice. Visitations' elaborately dark atmosphere gets more focus on Do It!, with "Tomorrow"'s creaky, cranky acoustics and "Mary and Eddie"'s electronically enhanced steamboat shanty providing some of the spookiest, and best, moments. It all culminates on "Coda," where Blackburn explains that the album is a celebration of "the 600th anniversary of the Bristol Charter" and urges listeners to "let go of the rail" (probably not a good idea) as several chapels' worth of church bells ring out. Do It! finds Clinic getting curiouser and curiouser, but that's the direction that suits them best. ~ Heather Phares, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
At their best, Clinic's songs are puzzles that, despite being made of simple pieces, are nigh-on impossible to figure out. The band goes deeper into their mysterious, noisy blankness on Visitations, which they've described as a "party album." Though it actually seems better suited for a bad trip or a séance, there's no doubt that this is some of Clinic's most consistently exciting work since Internal Wrangler (the band reunited with Gareth Jones, who mixed Wrangler, for this album). And while there aren't any drastic changes here, by the time the surging opening track, "Family," literally ends with a bang, it's clear that the men of Clinic are back to their gleefully cryptic selves. The band doesn't spend much time with the extremes of their sound -- "Tusk," a fiery rave-up, and the torchy title track are as far as it goes for Clinic's thrashy and reflective sides. Instead, they delve into their weird middle ground with spectacularly odd results, like "If You Could Read Your Mind"'s gypsy psych-rock and "Gideon"'s spaghetti Western punk. Zithers, autoharps, theremins, and percussion of all kinds give Visitations a creaky, antiquated feel, especially on the evil nursery rhyme folk of "Jigsaw Man"; even when Clinic goes acoustic, they've got a lock groove of bongos and rattlesnake rhythms powering them. They also craft some strikingly surreal audio collages: "Animal Human" begins with haunted house doo-wop incantations, then segues to a rumbling bassline and boom-chick-a-wow guitars straight out of a '70s porn soundtrack. "Children of Kellog" starts with a flourish of brass before moving to a lumbering groove sprinkled with xylophones, then an explosion-like gong sounds and the song morphs into a pretty slow jam with sawing sound effects in the background. In fact, there are only a couple of songs on Visitations that feel close to predictable. The languidly strummy "Paradise" sounds almost exactly like "Kimberley" from 1998's Cement Mixer EP, and "Harvest"'s insistent bass, tribal beat, and garbled vocals are so typically Clinic that they make the song too safe of a choice for Visitations' single -- especially since "The Second Line," the song that made their name in the first place, sounded like nothing else at the time. Overall, though, this dark, knotty album shows that Clinic's muse is back. Visitations may not be as immediate as Walking with Thee or Winchester Cathedral, but that's exactly what makes it intriguing -- and a welcome return to form. ~ Heather Phares, All Music Guide
'Walking with Thee'
Release Date 1/1/2002
Tracks 11
Label EMI Australia
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Right down to its gritty, mod-punk art direction, Walking With Thee seems like it should fit right in with Clinic's previous work. Indeed, the group's second full-length album could've been a carbon copy of their debut, Internal Wrangler, but to Clinic's credit, the band makes a few changes, opting for a smoother production and a quieter, more implosive sound than their previous work offered. Frustratingly, though, most of these changes end up detracting from the group's strengths and diluting the album's impact. Walking With Thee's production is far from slick, but a huge part of Clinic's appeal was that the band seemed to record in an underwater garage, giving their songs a fuzzy, cavernous sound that made their messy, thrashy moments even more dangerously alluring and their ballads that much more affecting. Stripped nearly bare of reverb and static, much of Walking With Thee sounds incomplete, particularly on the almost-punk of "Pet Eunuch," "Welcome," and "The Equaliser," which, with its rattling percussion and driving bassline, could've rivaled Internal Wrangler's ugly-beautiful intensity if had a little more oomph. However, the album isn't a total washout -- for every lackluster moment, there's one that connects. "The Vulture" and "Walking With Thee" nearly reach the frenzied, strangely sexy, bottom-dwelling heights (depths?) of Clinic's best work. And beginning with the chilly, hypnotic opener, "Harmony," many of the album's quietest moments are the most compelling. Filmic tracks like "Come Into Our Room" and the dreamy finale "For the Wars" follow suit, though their brooding, stark sound will only strengthen the Radiohead comparisons. There's a lot of promise on Walking With Thee, but nothing here touches the deadpan cool of Internal Wrangler's "The Second Line," the detached poignancy of "Distortion," or the raw energy of "Second Foot Stomp." The band sounds like they're still figuring out how to make the urgency of their previous work jell with a more polished, experimental sound, which makes Walking With Thee not so much a progression or regression as a step sideways. Clinic is still one of the most intriguing acts around, and while this isn't the masterpiece the band has the potential to deliver, an interesting disappointment from them is still better than a successful but boring album from a less-inspired group. ~ Heather Phares, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Clinic's long-awaited debut album Internal Wrangler fleshes out the sound the group crafted on their self-released EPs, and it also adds a few new twists. Though eerie, punk-tinged songs like "The Return of Evil Bill" and the title track sound like they could have appeared on the band's first singles, Internal Wrangler's best songs concentrate on the experimental yet accessible sides of Clinic's sound. "The Second Line"'s darkly catchy throb, the aptly named "2nd Foot Stomp"'s organ-driven pulse, and "Voodoo Wop"'s blend of surf and Krautrock are a logical progression from Clinic's roots, but ballads like the "Pale Blue Eyes"-esque "Distortions" and the late-night calm of "Goodnight Georgie" are a leap into new territory for the band. Though some of the thrashier songs like "C.Q." and "T.K." and a bottom-heavy song sequence detract from the album's flow, Internal Wrangler is still a strong debut from one of England's most promising and distinctive indie bands. ~ Heather Phares, All Music Guide
'Operation Contamination'
Release Date 9/9/1999
Tracks 21
Label Verbally Diseased Music
See Album Tracklist and Review
