When a band claims it is "like no other band," you really have no choice but to agree. What else is there to say to a statement so blunt and bold? Clinic is like no other band, and that's that. Well, not exactly. The Liverpool quartet produces a sound unlike anything I've ever heard -- but Clinic manages to do it with style.
When I was introduced to the group's debut album, Internal Wrangler, I must admit I was not too much of a fan of the British indie-pop group. There was too much going on and, while I love the whole post-punk genre, they didn't do too much for me. For a band known more for their on-stage fashion (think Michael Jackson-esque, with surgical masks and costumes) and eccentric uses of vintage keys and organs, I approached their latest effort, Do It!, with some degree of hesitation. In my usual style, with my untrained musical ear, I found myself choking back my initial hesitation and plunging headfirst into the album.
Upon a first listen, I was annoyed with "Memories," Do It!'s first track. Opening the album with funky-sounding keys, then jutting off unexpectedly into a head-bobbing drumbeat and guitar rift, only to come back to the smoother, more free-flowing vocals and keys matchup, I was more jarred than impressed. I love the vocals of frontman Ade Blackburn -- he has a certain je ne sais quoi that I can't quite touch on, and I still haven't figured out who the hell he reminds me of. With Jonathan Hartley -- Blackburn's Clinic co-conspirator back in 1997 -- on guitar and keys, drummer Carl Turney and bassist/flutist Brian Campbell, Do It! is the fifth album in a complex and carefully constructed collection -- almost like when the icing on the cake is better than the cake itself, so too is Do It!
The album is one that would be the perfect companion on a cross-country road trip. The entire experience would seem so '70s, with the top down, friends in the back and "The Witch (Made to Measure)" blaring from the radio.
The fast-paced album varies between upbeat rockers and silky melodies driven by the guitars and keys -- oftentimes, these sounds, from opposite spectrums, are incorporated into one song, à la "Shopping Bag," and the previously mentioned "Memories." While at first, this method seems undesirable, it ends up producing a positive effect -- even post-punk rockers need a brief period to slow down, chill out and make sweet love to their craft rather than ramming out 100 beats per minute.
I loved the first five tracks -- as soon as "Corpus Christi" slowed down the pace of the album, I became a bit bored. A revitalized "Winged Wheel" was a little more on par with the energy of the first half of the album, but "Mary and Eddie" and "Coda" were too dramatic for the overall tone of Do It! Instead of urging me on to actually Do It!, these tracks cautioned me to mellow out. Sorry, Clinic -- I don't want to chill out, I just want to Do It!
For a band that claims to be unique in its style, approach and overall experience, Do It! is a successful backup to that claim. The first half of Clinic's latest sent me straight back into the '70s (I want to say The Mamas & the Papas, but there's actually no musical connection). The sound came together and inspired me to leave on a trip to California and never come back. Upon embarking on the latter half of the album, however, I was forced back to reality with Clinic's unnecessarily sedated sound. Perhaps the road trip will come later, but for now, half of Do It! will be my consolation prize.
Read More
The best albums of 2014
By Noah Zeidman | December 4, 2014Across genres, it has been a pretty great year in music.
Top 10 movies of 2014
December 4, 2014This has been an excellent year for film, offering everything from gripping blockbusters to innovative personal films.
Iggy Azalea is “Reclassified”
December 4, 2014It has become common practice among music artists to repackage their albums in an effort to simultaneously boost single sales and dish out new content by slightly renaming the album or slapping “Deluxe” onto the title.
