Customer Reviews

Visitations

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

 

 

I love the menace in Clinic's sound. Angular, harsh, disconcerting--all of them apply. It's as if the singer from ? & the Mysterions were fronting the Fall. And they're playing a voodoo club in Haiti whose walls and ceiling are painted glossy black, with only a few bare light bulbs for illumination.

Were it not for expectations being so high, I would find 'Visitations' just fine. But they are, and as a result, 'Visitations' suffers.

To hear what 'Visitations' could have been, cue up "If You Could Read Your Mind". The tinny, angular guitar line, the zither, the disembodied vocals (especially the 'whoops' in the chorus) and the maracas make this prime Clinic. It's Bo Diddley meets Sam the Sham & the Pharoahs. Perfect. But it's a peak they too seldom reach.

'Visitations' is an improvement over 'Winchester Cathedral', and you could do worse than to purchase this. (Ever heard of the Hold Steady or the Cold War Kids?) "If You Could Read Your Mind" will light up your iPod and MP3 players and amaze your friends. But comparisons with 'Walking With Thee' and 'Internal Wrangler' are inevitable, and 'Visitations' comes up just a bit short.

My first exposure to Clinic came from some youtube surfing, I came across the video for If I Could Read your Mind and Harvest and fell in love. While 'Visitations' is the band's fourth album, you can perceive that they may have fallen into a sort of comfort zone with their style they rarely depart from.

This isn't necessarily a band thing, as the organs, clenched teeth vocals, and 60's influenced psychedelia is something I am finding, I am not getting tired of anytime soon. This album has tracks that will record itself into your brain with ease, and as you come back and listen to them over and over again, you will surely find that these guys are pretty gifted in their musical abilities. My biggest complaint is that the album itself is not as strong throughout as Walking With Thee. Tusk/Paradise/Children of Kellogg or the middle of the section sort of flounders around.

What has changed is the theme of the album, being about family, belonging, or more identity-seeking I find might make this album easier to relate to than some of their earlier work.

Personally it was the surgical masks that first pulled me into Clinic.

But it was their tangled, intense art-rock that kept me listening to this strange little band. And their fourth album "Visitations" doesn't stray too far from the style Clinic has mastered in their previous albums, yet somehow it's still compelling, dense and just a bit unnerving.

It opens with "Family," a sort of stompy freakfolk anthem that veers along steadily without any big ups or downs. So, uh what makes it hypnotic? Ade Blackburn's distinctive (if rather mumbly) voice floating above the dense thicket of buzzy guitars and melodica, as he murmurs out lyrics about family, capture and whatever. I told you it was hard to understand.

But that doesn't make the music that follows any less excellent: the somnolent "Animal/Human" with its slow, circling melody, which is followed by sizzling slow-burning rock, ringing art-punk, murmuring freak-folk, and soaring indiepop in the shimmering "If You Could Read Your Mind." It closes on the title track, a suitably atmospheric song that makes me think of deserts, sunsets and stone-faced cowboys.

Yeah, their sound hasn't really altered over their entire discography. True. But on the other hand, Clinic sounds surprisingly refreshed, compared to the more lackluster "Winchester Cathedral," as if they've taken a long nap and woken up with renewed enthusiasm. There's more soul in this one.

The music itself is a glorious tangle of ringing guitars, simmering bass, and rippling melodica in some of the softer songs. It's dense, heavy and wild, like a thorny thicket. But it's also surprisingly hypnotic, since the melodies tend to circle themselves in a repeating loop, but they're complex enough not to sound repetitive. Instead, listeners get sucked in.

Ade Blackburn's voice is pretty distinctive too -- high-pitched, detached, and kinda stoned. But he has the vocal chops to rise above the simmering music, and he murmurs the lyrics almost like a chant. Basically, he fits into the music seamlessly, because his singing is just as hypnotically circular.

What could "Visitations" do without, though? Well, "Interlude" is basically just a half minute of creepy inarticulate whispers, and somehow the dense blasting of "Children of Kellogg" just didn't grab me. And I had to crank down the volume.

But "Visitations" is definitely a good return for Clinic, after a third album that was rather lackluster. Their cycling, eerie art-rock is definitely something to look out for.

I love this album! I strongly recommend this to anyone. Other than the music, check out the artwork on the album cover is so psychedelic. Last, but not least this a great seller with such great prices for hard to find items. Also I recommend this seller.

I had no idea who Clinic was until "Family" was featured on a "download of the day" site... This is great get-you-going music... Sure, you can't understand the words, and I'm often a big fan of songs that tell good stories. The music on this album is simply so good, the words don't matter.

If you like Clinic, you'll like this album - if you don't know who they are, it's a better introduction than Winchester Cathedral. Better than Walking With Thee for the relative diversity. More focused and cohesive than Internal Wrangler, but without the initial feeling of discovery that comes with that album. On this one, they know what they do best and do it.

Ok first off, I'd like to thank either Clinic or Domino records or whoever decided to put a copy of the cd in with the purchase of the vinyl. Now I have the awesomeness of owning it on vinyl plus the convenience of the cd. Lets make that common practice! Now onto the tunes. If ya like clinic, you'll like this cd, cuz basically it sounds like every other clinic cd: talking through your teeth vocals with spooky boogie behind it. In fact some songs I swear I heard before, but ya know what? I dont even care, cuz this cd still rocks especially family, children of kellogg and if you could read your mind. Good stuff! Buy this.

Grow all of your hair out and grab your rusty skateboots because this is garage-psych roller rink disco. Syd Barrett wearing saucepan-sized amber goggles wrapped around receding brillo top, wagging a confetti hose above the sweatbanded, cocaine-caked crowd. I feel giddy, but also slightly nauseous. Shouldn't have eaten all my art supplies -- or straddled that half-buried carousel made out of the same slick papier mache as Mother Mary. Don't get me started on the monkeys. What's bowling alley shoe spray supposed to taste like anyway?

Take for instance "Harvest," jangly tinkerings peppered with howls, what sounds like a dobro washboard, percussion all kickdrum, tom-tom and tight-lipped hi-hat, organ massaged in phantom drone. The guitars and Ade Blackburn's voice exude a nasal, acidic, aluminum-chew quality that brings to mind Gris Gris' Greg Ashley, whose lo-fi turf is cultivated from a similar antiquated nest of cat dander. Welcome to the funhouse on "Children of Kellogg," wherein something's wrong with the hobby horse, sawing from the inside through a plywood heart.

There is a feeling of palpable anxiety to the whole mix, like sniffing your seatbottom in a transluscent cubicle -- urgency warring with abandon in Blackburn's cobra-slithery snarl and the tribal clashings and thumpings from the animal at the rear. By the time the title cut, a surprising slow cooker, crosses the laser eye, I've fallen overboard, resigned to use my inner ear as a flotation device, picking at the sequined skylights, swallowing steam clouds whole, knitting ashes out of the mothballed air.

Great minds think alike.I have read the reviews of all the CLINIC albums and everyone seems to agree on three things:CLINIC is the future sound of rock. This band is way ahead of everything else out there.Second,the singer sounds like he's singing through clenched teeth,but this is a good thing.And third,their sound is a mix of just about every influence you can think of,but it emerges as a totally unique new sound.So forget about all your other albums and get as many CLINIC records as you can.I know I am.thanks dennis