Customer Reviews

Walking With Thee

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It was if it came to me in a dream. I awoke one eveing last week, to witness Clinic on MTV2. I was visiting Boston, from Wisconisin, and had never seen such a great video at home. Or wait, I hadn't seen such an excellent video in ten years. The song was "distorions" form clinic's 2000 album, "Internal Wrangler." I bought the c.d. the next day, listened to it all day. The next day I bought "Walking with Thee." I haven't stopped listening to it. I can't help to compare the band to RAdiohead, Modest mouse, and the Velvet Underground. It is all there, The Beatles. This is woking class British rock at its recent best. I think Clinic diagnoses ThomYorke. I guess they are his favorite band and I don't blame him. Move over Thom, now they too are my favorite band. Check out their website cliniconline.org, and look at the pictures, these guys are nuts. It is like the cover of "Hey Jude" mixed with Pink Floyd, only smarter and more distant. I am talking about the one with the four of them in front of the pyramid. So enough about the band and what they seem to be like. Check them out for yourself, a must need for anyone that isn't down with the sickness, or sick of crummy music, and want to take a pill with some serious substance, buy this record, and their other ones. This band is definately going somewhere. Hopefully they will be back in the states soon.

They sound like a mix of Velvet Underground and Frank Zappa's "Freak Out". Clinic has one of the most original sounds going today- by far. There's no middle ground here, you will either love or hate this album. I just happen to fall into the former.

had this been the first album they released, it would get a screaming 5 stars for breaking out of the 'i wanna make new rock' mold

as it stands, they get three and a half because while this is a good album, it is just like internal wrangler, the sounds, the beats, incomprehensible lyrics with the occasional sigh, the LENGTH for crying out loud. . . if i was a music snob, i would give 'em two stars for being stunningly unoriginal here

in short, they created good music ala internal wrangler, and if you enjoyed it and want more, get it. maybe we really want to hear more and more of the same stuff.

chief complaint: new trend in music is short little albums. this must stop. immediately. i will not pay twenty bucks for 40 minutes of entertainment, no way. but this could actually explain the lack of departure from the clinic 'sound' as two 35 minute albums about equals one full length, so maybe i am being a bit harsh. . . nah

sidebar not related to rating here:
i was so excited to see these guys a couple of weeks ago that i was bouncing off the walls, then they played for like 40 minutes. . . including encore. the opening bands had longer sets. what a sham. my clinic fixation has waned.

Clinic are self proclaimed Residents fans (check out the jacket for their full length debut 'Internal Wrangler' and you'll see black and white pictures of guys in tuxes with eyeballs for heads, thats the Residents) for those of you who don't know (and I don't blame you for not knowing who they are), the Residents are an eccentric bunch of guys who have pushed the limits of what music can be defined as since the late sixties (their first album was released in the early seventies), some call it brilliant, most call it unlistenable. But the history lessons aside, the differences between the Residents and Clinic (musically) is glaring in that the Residents desided very early on that they wanted to make something entirely new, no influences, not even structurally, and Clinic does what a really good art rock band should do and search wide and far for hundreds of obscure sounds and bring them together and brand it their own. The results for the Residents, moaning vocals resembling the eerie sounds that can be heard in your local asylum, and a song structure that can only be desribed as 'twisted', but for Clinic, the result is much more listenable, albiet less original (and that being said only in comparison to the Residents of course).

However heres what seperates the men from the boys, or Clinic from, oh say, the Strokes, Clinic wanders freely in all of their songs from a variety of influences, in a single three minutes Clinic can manage to mix Radiohead, Suicide, Joy Division, the Modern Lovers, Dan the Automator, early Beach Boys, the Monks, the Velvets, and even the Shengri-La's seemlessly. Countless critics will say they are another in a faceless alternative
wave of Radiohead wannabes, not true! Unlike the Strokes, or the Hives, or even the White Stripes, Clinic has the creative compacity to move from scene to scene, genre to genre, etc. without letting the emotions of these genres override the one they are trying to create.

While Clinic are clearly sperated from anything really mainstream, they are also firly rooted in some form of pop ascetic, their songs are catchy almost instantly to an open listeners ears, but are complex enough to make themselves worthy of repeate listens. A brilliant combo, the likes of which have never been seen since Talking Heads came out with Remain in Light.

BUT! This album is very, very short, as is Internal Wrangler, and the two have many many similarities musically (Wrangler is the better album). If you can find it used or at a discount price it would probably be for the best as shelling out 15.00 for under a 1/2 hour of music doesn't quite seem worth it, no matter how truley brilliant it is, especially in these days of online piracy, etc. However the music is brilliant and startling at once and highly recommended to ANYONE, just keep a somewhat opened mind and remember that these guys are 10 times more accessable than Radiohead (in this reviewers opinion).

Anyone who was expecting Clinic to release an album to put all albums to shame was disappointed when "Walking With Thee" came out. That would be like asking Radiohead to release "Amnesiac" as the follow up to "Pablo Honey." It just doesn't work that way.

Clinic has stepped forward, however tentatively, on this album. There are some similar elements but these Liverpudlians have laid the groundwork for future experiments. 'The Equaliser' adds deeper and more complex beats than anything Clinic have worked with before, and while 'Pet Eunuch' seems like a simple surf rock toss off it's got rubbery bass that is unforgettale. 'The Vulture' tosses a haunting piano onto a rythym part that Lo Fidelity All-Stars wated to come up with and it saunters all the way through its 3 plus minutes. 'For the Wars' is absolutely superb, and that's about all that needs to be said.

"Walking With Thee" is not a radical departure from what Clinic usually do, but it lays the foundation for future experimentation. There's enough to entice the true blue fan as well as rope in some new ears. If you're sick (of radio rubbish) make sure to visit the Clinic.

I agree with all the reviews here. Too many songs on the new album feature a typical dance hall drum beat. The album probably lacks the variety of Internal Wrangler. Their live performances are far too short. (Of course, all their songs put together would probably only take up an hour and a half.) But this is still one of the best albums I've heard in a long time. I probably play "Welcome" and "For the Wars" three times every time I put in the CD. You have to be a certain personality type to really identify with this music, but if you're into bands like the Clientele, VU, Radiohead (Kid A and Amnesiac)--maybe even Gang of Four--you'll love this album. Now if they'd only come back to Dallas and play for another hour...

I suspect that in everyone's highschool, hometown or wherever, there was always that kid that was just different from everyone else. Maybe it was his tendancy to quote Nietzsche; maybe it was his fondness for alien lore; or maybe it was just the creepy vibe you got when he looked at you. Imagine this scenario then: you're walking past that weird kid's house and you hear a sound emenating from his garage. Feeling brave you peek inside, and discover that he and some of his freaky friends have scraped together a garage band. I imagine that band would sound a lot like Clinic.

Through nasal vocals, heavy echoed percussion, churning low-fi guitar stews and all sorts of flavouring ingredients like sporatic harmonies, keyboard riffs and saxaphone and flute bridges, Walking With Thee is an album that successfully creates a very sly, sinister mood. The music generally defies classification. It's Pavement-style indie rock/punk with a "but," Radiohead post-alternative with an "if," Air-esque jazz-pop with a "maybe?"

The more aggressive numbers, like the title track and "Pet Eunuch" are alright, but not where the music really shines. Slower numbers like the sublime "Mr Moonlight," the throbbing, etherial "Sunlight Bathes Our Home" and the downright pretty "For the Wars" are what make Clinic live up to the hype as one of the best up-and-coming bands of the year.

In "Internal Wrangler", the listener got assaulted by an eclectic source of sounds and samples. A really exciting journey through psychedelic rock, punk, and more experimental uses of electronic sounds. But in "Walking With Thee", the band standardizes itself. Most of the tunes maintain a pretty traditional dance-hall rhythm, the wide array of sounds from "Internal Wrangler" are reduced to a handful, and the songs maintain a similar tone throughout, moving between slightly dark and slightly upbeat, but mostly mediocre. If you're interested in Clinic, skip this album. Although it's not a bad one, it's definitely not a great one. Just go straight to "Internal Wrangler".

Clinic's "Walking With Thee" is that pretty, intimidating kid down the street -- entrancing, yet somehow dangerous to touch. It sounds pretty, until the creepier notes kick in. While they have a few classic rock bands fueling their sound, the eerie electronic pop sound is entirely their own.

It opens with the darkly naive note of "Harmony," a sweet pop tune that is grounded by the occasional deep piano notes. But things take a different note with the rattly "Equaliser" and bassy, plodding "Welcome." A classic rock sound kicks in with "Pet Eunuch," which could've been a lost song from the 1960s.

But that is followed by the wavery keyboard of "Mr. Moonlight," a song that wouldn't seem out of place in a secluded corner of Radiohead's albums. That trend is continued by the blippy, dreamy "Come Into Our Room" and jazzy "Vulture," broken only by the lo-fi rock of "The Bridge." Think of it as Radiohead exorcising their inner Lou Reed.

Clinic seems to have taken every musical influence they enjoyed, thrown them together in a pot, and the result is "Walking With Thee." You can hear hints of Velvet Underground, Joy Division, maybe a dash of Modest Mouse, and some Radiohead -- and that's only a few. Surprising, the songs mesh very well together.

The heart of the album seems to be punk riffs and chilly electronica. It starts off and ends on eerie, cold notes, more computerized than outright musical. That could have had them labelled a Radiohead wannabe. But they kick in almost instantly with the solid rock: The grubbier organic music is mostly guitar and some plodding bass, with hammering percussion taking center stage in the title song.

The vocals are high and thin. Not in a bad way, just merely a bit wispy; they stick to an ominous monotone throughout much of the album, only breaking into some drowned-out yelps in "Pet Eunuch." He's a lot better when he's being miserable: "And I believed in solitude/I believed too little was few/Free for all your happiness/and no ones living on their wits."

Clinic's second album is a bit like an snow-covered beach -- it's gritty and chilly, but still very beautiful. "Walking With Thee" is certainly worth walking with.

Saddled with Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke's Most Favored Band status, Liverpool quartet Clinic has to be wary of going out of fashion before it has a chance to break big outside the group's native UK and select parts of the Continent. Clinic's 2000 debut, Internal Wrangler, had a nice retro arty-punk edge to it; marrying Velvet Underground lyrical detachment with early-'80s Suicide beats. The follow-up, Walking With Thee, improves not only on the production of its predecessor, but the consistency of the sonic structures as well. "Harmony" opens the record with an eerie synth-powered groove that's as tight as it is disquieting. "The Equaliser" changes gears to a pounding rattlesnake drumbeat, injecting an amphetamine-fueled urgency into the proceedings. "Pet Eunoch," a punk powered two-minute assault, comes closest to the band's earlier work, providing a nice middle break. But it's on the latter half of Walking With Thee that things truly get interesting. "Mr. Moonlight" sports a clean, nervy expectation lurking beneath its restrained beat and singer Ade Blackburn's twitchy, barely-holding-on-to-sanity vocals. "Come Into Our Room" is peak Clinic, looping the title vocal as if it were an frantic plea into a dangerous, but intoxicatingly inviting sanctuary. The propulsive exigency running through the album proves to be its strongest suit, while the weak link is the same as on the band's earlier releases: A creeping sense of foreboding that the group will recycle itself rather than move forward. Undoubtedly Clinic does moody, synthesized trance tunes quite well. The danger is that such clever, if limited, noise will be the sum of an outfit with so much more to offer. Providing the band can sustain the momentum it's already generated, Clinic clearly has a masterpiece within it.