clinic: one trick pony?

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sounds like the same old sh!t to me: i think i already have these new songs on their older albums-http://www.clinicvoot.org/

curious to know what other familiar with the band think.

― venimdenim, Thursday, 23 February 2006 15:41 (twenty years ago)

Half-trick pony. I bought one of theirs on the strength of a cut on a comp cd. Not only was it the best of the cd, the rest of it was damn near unlistenable. Any reason for me to modify my opinion?

― J Arthur Rank (Quin Tillian), Thursday, 23 February 2006 15:47 (twenty years ago)

If memory serves, they have four tricks, though it's pretty much been the same 4 on every album: the Roadrunner rip off, the Pale Blue Eyes rip off, the Add It Up rip off, and the fake dub/melodica thing. Sometimes appearing in combination. All very nice, and I still have no regrets about owning the singles comp. and the 1st CD.

― dlp9001, Thursday, 23 February 2006 16:08 (twenty years ago)

I remember hearing one track by whatever they were called before they became Clinic, thought it was quite good. Then I found the album, and I could not remember which track I liked off it.

I like a fair few of their tracks. OK, three. The one about IPC subeditors, purely for the intro, the "Monkey on my back" sparks ripoff, and the "NOh!" track about "Walking with the"

Then again, I didn;t hear one I didn't like. Apart from their first incarnation.

― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 23 February 2006 16:12 (twenty years ago)

excellent response!...i fully agree...a 4-trick pony!

― venimdenim, Thursday, 23 February 2006 16:15 (twenty years ago)

yeah dlp very much otm. i was crazy about the singles comp and the debut and had oddly high hopes but pow as soon as i heard walking with thee or whatever it was called - diminished. it's also colored how i hear the earlier stuff fairly or unfairly.

― j blount (papa la bas), Thursday, 23 February 2006 16:23 (twenty years ago)

i still haven't heard the last album, so i don't know if they came up with any more tricks.i really dug the first two full-lengths a bunch. i don't play them anymore though. maybe that means something. i don't play the beta band ep's or first album anymore either. another band that i probably played out. beta band had at least 5 tricks.

― scott seward (scott seward), Thursday, 23 February 2006 16:27 (twenty years ago)

I like them quite a lot and I don't think the "one-trick pony" tag is particularly fair. It is true that they've cultivated a distinctive sound, and also perhaps true that they've done little to change it, but when a band does a single "sound" as well as they do, it seems grossly unfair to write them off just because their songs sound similar to one another. I think Alasdair from the Clientele said that he wasn't worried about rewriting the same song a hundred times because as a "sound" goes through different iterations from song to song, new meanings appear and old ones disappear, and hidden influence is brought to light. If they write decent songs (and they do! "Circle of Fifths was fucking awesome!), then it seems like sour-grapes to harp on their innovation or lack thereof. Some bands try and move forward, and when they fail to do so people get pissed off. Maybe rightly so. Some bands, on the other hand, just try and create an atmosphere through their music, which Clinic definitely does. It seems like it would be more inexcusable if they changed things up for the sake of changing things up, at the expense of quality.

― son of blllaaarrrggghhh, Thursday, 23 February 2006 17:29 (twenty years ago)

i would just like to point out that it's 2006.

― ham'ron (dubplatestyle), Thursday, 23 February 2006 17:31 (twenty years ago)

I agree that Clinic has four or five songs, and they've been rewriting them ever since, and it's massively frustrating to me because the first singles comp, Internal Wrangler, and Walking With Thee are all brilliant records and I love them dearly, and it breaks my heart to see them putting out such incredibly uninspired music.

"Falstaff" from the last one was good, though. Hopefully there will be a couple keepers on the new record. That first single is really lousy, though.

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Thursday, 23 February 2006 17:35 (twenty years ago)

xpost

yr right, they need more drums, more melodies, and more synths. also to sound more like the gang of four.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Thursday, 23 February 2006 17:37 (twenty years ago)

I like this song! Hopefully this record will be better than 'Winchester Cathedral' was, I still want Clinic to amaze me.

― zeus (zeus), Thursday, 23 February 2006 22:11 (twenty years ago)

Oh dear god, at this point in time no one on earth ever needs to sound like Gang of Four.

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Thursday, 23 February 2006 22:22 (twenty years ago)

It'd be more interesting if they aimed for Argybargy-era Squeeze. I bet that would sound fascinating and great.

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Thursday, 23 February 2006 22:23 (twenty years ago)

last record was not great, but Matthew's right, they have some great albums. Internal Wrangler is a classic

― sovietpanda (sovietpanda), Thursday, 23 February 2006 22:52 (twenty years ago)

i like everything they've put out, but that's just me.

― Christopher Costello (CGC), Friday, 24 February 2006 00:51 (twenty years ago)

Yeah the tend to rewrite the same somgs over and over, but on each album there's at least two songs that are just amazing. Circle of Fifths was so good, and sounded very different... I think if they spent a lot more time the could collect a bunch of good songs and put that out maybe...

― vreen, Friday, 24 February 2006 01:40 (twenty years ago)

six months pass...

New album Visitations has leaked. Check the usual places if interested.

My impression: They've altered the formula in a very shallow way (instrumentation, production tricks), but the songwriting is the same, so if you didn't like the last one, don't bother I'd say.

― Jouster (Jouster), Saturday, 26 August 2006 21:51 (nineteen years ago)

one month passes...

It's better than the last one btw. Clinic is still a one trick pony, but a very good one.

― zeus (zeus), Friday, 20 October 2006 09:07 (nineteen years ago)

I haven't thought about Clinic for ages. Laura liked them but I haven't really kept up with their stuff since Internal Wrangler, which is going on six years. But it doesn't sound as though they've progressed much since then.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 20 October 2006 10:45 (nineteen years ago)

I remember getting a shock when I realised that the middle eight of 'Monkey On Your Back' is exactly the same, note for note, as the middle eight from 'Old World' by the Modern Lovers. (perhaps I'm wrong about the title of the Modern Lovers song, but it's definitely one from that album)

I think the new one is quite different from 'Winchester Cathedral', it's a lot more immediate, for one thing. I suppose they've got a theme, like a lot of other bands. I wish they'd written a few more songs like 'Distortions,' but that seems to have been a one-off.

― Kate Jane Connolly (fixitgirl), Friday, 20 October 2006 11:03 (nineteen years ago)

I haven't thought about Clinic for ages. Laura liked them but I haven't really kept up with their stuff since Internal Wrangler, which is going on six years. But it doesn't sound as though they've progressed much since then.
-- Marcello Carlin (marcellocarli...), October 20th, 2006.

Their second album, Walking With Thee had a bit more spacey, electronica-infected sound, that was a good direction.

― zeus (zeus), Friday, 20 October 2006 11:12 (nineteen years ago)

Yes, I ought to give that one a listen; I was too depressed to want to do so at the time it came out.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 20 October 2006 11:22 (nineteen years ago)

five years pass...

Saw the latest Weetabix advert, thinking "Hang on, is that Clinic?"

Yep.

― Mark G, Thursday, 3 May 2012 09:11 (thirteen years ago)

what song?

― the endless white snow has never felt more textile (loves laboured breathing), Thursday, 3 May 2012 12:24 (thirteen years ago)

It's called "D.P." off the "IPC Subeditors dictate our youth" ep.

― Mark G, Thursday, 3 May 2012 13:25 (thirteen years ago)

after months without seeing any tv, the first ad i saw when returning to it was a sharwoods curry one soundtracked by bill wells & maher shalal hash baz. brave new confusing world.

― danny houellebecq (Merdeyeux), Thursday, 3 May 2012 13:32 (thirteen years ago)

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