Customer Reviews

Do It!

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'm a relatively new fan of Clinic's music, but they're fast becoming one of my favorites. This most recent release is one of their best, with songs like "Emotions", "Coda", and the incredibly catchy "Tomorrow" being standouts. Ade Blackburn's vocals sound like no one else's out there. This UK band definitely deserves wider recognition.

there is not a bad song on this beauty. it will definitely end up as one of my top 5 for 2008.they've been good since they started and all their cd's are worth owning.

Four stars only by comparison with past records, for consistency in my opinion's a recommendation for this band. Ade Blackburn with his distinctive vocals, odd yet hauntingly catchy or menacing, continues to suggest more than their mournful, wistful words slur or sigh. He uses his voice as another instrument, and the depth of this band's deceptively austerd music becomes enriched. It sinks into the woodwork, and has long sustain, and appears to reverberate and linger. This must be their fifth studio CD (not counting the three EP's initially that made the band popular-- at least in Britain-- and the import B-sides "Funf"), and their hallmark sound remains taut.

It's a bit less overwhelming than "Visitations" if not as direct as "Winchester Cathedral" in its strangeness. A necessary step forward, however, as the band shows itself ready to alter its characteristically austere approach in the name of reaching perhaps a few more listeners. Without compromising their intelligence, the production here broadens slightly into more radio-friendly styles in a couple of the tracks.

Such a shift for me's reminiscent of Mark E. Smith and The Fall's forays into blending their own art-punk hermeticism with a broader, yet still experimental, dance or rock-oriented sound. This may appeal to fans of Radiohead (for whom Clinic opened). I predict if more of those millions who follow Radiohead found out about Clinic, they'd logically and deservedly be much higher on the charts and in critical acclaim.

Like Thom Yorke and crew, Ade Blackburn as frontman for this masked quartet cloaks himself in sounds, instead of stepping away or in front of them. The tension increases, and the music thickens, simple patterns that sidle and hiss. Why the band has not achieved a more prominent profile perplexes me, but then, I like The Fall!

So, for such ambitious yet willfully cryptic bands, perhaps a loyal cadre of fans who buy each CD legally and who spread the good word are enough to ensure that they continue. The last cut, by the way, hearkens directly to the Mekons; it celebrates the 600th anniversary of the Bristol Charter, and in a shambolic artsy-punk-folk-anarchist spirit suggests Clinic's stretching further back into their native heritage. This may speak, as it did for the Mekons, again promisingly for a long life for another heir to the venerable tradition of smart, yet quirky and unpredictable, art-punk studio wizards who like to keep you puzzled. An enjoyable record, both happy and howling, and recommended for those who like to keep themselves and their fellow listeners off guard a bit.

Do It! (2008, Domino) Clinic's fifth studio album. ***1/2

Clinic have always been the darling artsy art-rock rockers whose music is honestly something that has to be experienced; not because it is so amazing that one will go into a coma after his first listen, but because they are a band with a startingly original sound. Is it acquired taste? Absolutely. But that doesn't mean they're incapable of writing songs that most people will 'get.'

Do It! is not all that different from Clinic's other albums, but they've added a few more influences apart from the Velvet Underground and Wire. The strange ambient noises and distorted church bell rings are still present, but with each successive album the influences shift a tad. Here we find Clinic channeling their best emulation of Pink Floyd, as best expressed in the album's opener "Memories." The same crunchy riffs start off and Ade Blackburn's signature haunting vocal style - reminiscent of Lou Reed - are in full force. It echoes the days of Piper at the Gates of Dawn, and much of Do It! feeds off of this influence as well as Bob Dylan, as each album tends to be concerned with a style of some sort.

The Bob Dylan influence seeps through on "Tomorrow," featuring a strange twangy acoustic guitar. The album continues as the rest of Clinic's output; decent songs that are all relatively set at the same tempo and feature the same instruments, yet sound eerily different. It's a task not easy to do, and Clinic does it beatifully. Another highlight is "Free Not Free," a dreamy psychedlic song interrupted by terrifying guitar breaks. The ending is spectacular as well, as "Coda" is an instrumental (save for a few spoken lines) featuring a wonderful guitar solo by Hartley. As always, Clinic is wonderfully weird. (Tomorrow, Free Not Free, Coda)

-Stephen
www.politicianrock.blogspot.com

HELLO I see a rare opportunity to review a record that hasn't been overreviewed!CLINIC'S last album VISITATIONS is one of my favorites and I like it more than DO IT,not to say this isn't a really good record also,just a little more laid back.As far as I'm concerned CLINIC is one of the best bands around and anything they do will be great thanks DENNIS