Walking With Thee

Scouser outfit Clinic return with another eleven offerings of skewered pop cooked according to the recipes revealed in their first album Internal Wrangler. Their amalgamation of the stark funk of the Fall and the shimmering drones of Neu have already won a dedicated following, boosted considerably by being chosen personally by Radiohead to open their Big Top tour and soundtracking a Levi’s ad with the brilliant ‘The Second Line’.

While their debut was packed to the brim with perfect pop sensibilities and great songs, Walking With Thee could be said to be a more focused summation of their sound but unfortunately comes across as all the more boring for it. There is little here that lives up to the promise and standard set by opener ‘Harmony’. The current single and title track exercises some mean harmonica howls and bristling guitar hooks, yet it stilll sounds somewhat unfinished and forgettable despite the best efforts of a reasonable chorus. ‘Pet Eunuch’ has a great title but amounts to little more than an ill-advised ditty with a very annoying Hammond sound.

Clinic are undoubtedly capable of far better work than this, but for now the magic appears to have severely eluded them.