Clinic: the doctors of true rock

Walking with Thee\nClinic\nDomino\nAde Blackburn\'s garbled vocals on Clinic's second album Walking With Thee can summon infinite meanings. To me the album sounds like it's about sex, with Blackburns's taut vocals speaking for all of us awkward, frustrated and stupefied boys. \nOn the title track, it is difficult to find any intelligible lyrics except for the title, but the distorted guitars and organ imply a yearning, and when he shouts, "NO!" you know it's something he's being told. "Come Into Our Room," has a suggestive title and the "Halloween"-esque keyboard melody evokes sinister images of seduction, but a major-key counter melody towards the end of the song shows the duality of the character. \nThen there are songs like the closing "For The Wars," a waltz with a familiar nursery rhyme melody. The childlike landscape and the lyrical hook, "you're all made up for the wars," create images of little boys playing sandbox warriors. One could take this as a political statement, but Blackburn's tenor finally sounds confident, which insinuates that he is simply gazing back to childhood. \nThe music compounds the feelings evoked by the lyrics throughout the album. The noisy guitars and British Invasion-like organ suggest sentimentalism, but the use of imaginative beats gives the album a futuristic feel. Live drums are interspersed with programmed beats and odd rhythmic sounds are created by using the melodica. On "The Equaliser," it sounds as if Clinic is using glass ashtrays and aluminum baseball bats to create an immense, danceable clutter.\nSnippets of lyrics from Walking With Thee can reveal so many different meanings. How would you interpret, "good as ever, good as ever… close," from "The Bridge"? Like R.E.M.'s early albums, Clinic refuses to be pinned down by indefinite comprehension. Mysterious albums like these continue to unfold in your imagination, and years later if you somehow figure it out, you'll only be disappointed.\n

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