CLINIC
Do It!
(Domino)
Liverpool's scrub-suited, lysergic quartet remain compelling with album number five, so perhaps it's time for Clinic to take a bow and leave fans begging for more. Then again, Do It! is probably the most daring collection of songs the band has assembled.
Clinic still blast trebly noise across mesmerizing rhythms to make anxious pagan rock. But Do It! often replaces the learn-as-you-go wind instruments -- such as the clarinet and melodica that wailed through 2004's Winchester Cathedral -- with subtler guitar work and a broader range of tempos.
Their primitive beats however, can't and shouldn't be stilled. The crafty opener "Memories" sounds like two songs taking turns at the microphone, with a fuzz guitar, autoharp and 4/4 stomp trading off with childlike organ, bass and maracas. And "Shopping Bag" is all reed-splitting sax skronk racing to the finish against three chords hammering on the guitar.
But there's a full-on slow dance number, appropriately titled "Emotions." Though singer Ade Blackburn's wired-jaw vocals don't make it easy to know exactly what he's feeling.
Yes, it's all very much a druggy walk through the forest, from the Velvet Underground tango of "High Coin" to the carnival at the end of the universe in the end piece "Coda." Maybe Clinic has a sixth LP in them.
Reference materials: If you always wanted Moondog to make a garage-rock record, or really dig fellow Scousers The Coral (especially Magic and Medicine) then you'll enjoy Clinic.
(Or maybe you just secretly wish Clinic would write a new soundtrack for the underrated feminist horror film Season of the Witch.)
