Clinic -- Walking With Thee

I like 'walking with thee' more than 'Internal Wrangler' so there - different strokes for different folks i suppose

'Walking With Thee' is getting so much praise because Clinic is the best band to crop up since the demise of The Smiths and My Bloody Valentine! I'm cherishing Clinic while they're still around; they've renewed my interest in music again and again, and I don't see anything even remotely disappointing in their discography. I couldn't have been any happier with Internal Wrangler; I mention this only because you labeled it a disappointment. It was/is a brilliant follow- up to the band's EPs. Let others be turned off to them if that's really happening (Clinic is pretty much routinely praised, so I'm not sure anybody's really knocking them too much). If some people (and I'm not referring to you Yancey (just the people you think might be turned off by 'Walking With Thee')) don't know greatness when they hear it, that's their problem. Cherish Clinic while you can. Where you see lameness and boredom, I see a growing maturity.

Tim: I think Internal Wrangler is a great record, they're just continuing down this road of removing all of the disonnance and surprises from their songs. And the great rhythms that made Internal Wrangler and the singles so special are strangely missing. I don't think Walking With Thee, on a normal scale, is a bad record. I was just hoping for something more along the lines of 2nd Foot Stomp or Sketch or Porno.

If you want more detail on my disappointment you can read my thoughts on the album at neumu.

when i look at 'walking with thee' i look at it as an experiment in texture. of course most of the songs have similar, if not completely similar, beats and melodies, but the point is that Ade and co. can take that and make these wierd emotional pop landscapes out of them.

I think "Internal Wrangler" is a boring and lame record. I honestly don't understand the praise that's being heaped on this band. They're sorta kinda like Tones on Tail... who I didn't like either. Of course you can't like everything, but as someone with pretty varied musical taste, I like to think that I can at least see the appeal in something people are going so nuts over; and in this case I can't.

I take it back; at least Tones on Tail had "Go".

Yancey, I applaud your smart piece in neumu, and I'll probably respond again here, after I've spent more time with 'Walking With Thee." But I still don't really understand how 'Internal Wrangler' is disappointing in comparison to the singles, though I'm not sure if you're still sticking to that argument. I was mostly taking issue with that assessment in my first post. The self-titled collection consistently stuns me on each listen, but I don't see it as anything revolutionary up against 'Internal Wrangler.' To me they're equally superb and exhilirating releases.

Sean, did you really just compare Clinic to Tones on Tail? What slender fungus have you been digesting? :) Since Clinic isn't a band to "go nuts over," what bands are you going nuts over? Surely not And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead or Boards of Canada or some other band that I'm somewhat disheartened to see getting praised left and right on ILM lately?

"I still don't really understand how 'Internal Wrangler' is disappointing in comparison to the singles, though I'm not sure if you're still sticking to that argument. I was mostly taking issue with that assessment in my first post. The self-titled collection consistently stuns me on each listen, but I don't see it as anything revolutionary up against 'Internal Wrangler.' To me they're equally superb and exhilirating releases."

Yeah, calling Internal Wrangler a disappointment is disengenuous. It is a fantastic record. I just love those singles so much, the way, as you said, they stun me over and over (especially Porno and that burst of static). I guess hearing Walking With Thee makes me dislike Internal Wrangler more than I used to because it points to this direction that they are heading -- "maturing," I guess you would say. No, the singles are not revolutionary, but they are so loose, so carefree. It just seems like they are taking their time now, actually working on ironing their songs out. This is something that Ade and Carl talked about when I interviewed them, but I hadn't heard Walking With Thee at the time, so I didn't understand how far they were really taking it.

Oh, and count me in as someone really impressed with Source Tags & Codes. A brilliant record.

I didnt think the last album added anything to the singles either, so I've stuck with the singles.

Not to take back my comment about And You Will Us By The Trail of Dead and Boards of Canada, but I really only mentioned those two bands because it's mildly disappointing to see some people dismissing Clinic while there's all this rampant praise for the rehashed Plaid- lite/Brothers-Eno sounds of (Boards) and the somewhat more interesting (than Boards) take on Sonic Youth meets At the Drive-In meets Flickerstick miasma that Trail of Dead usually release. I haven't gotten around to the new Boards and Trail of Dead albums, so I'll reserve judgment there, but Clinic just seems to be (consistently) worlds beyond the aforementioned, for what it's worth (probably nothing). It's really just a matter of opinion, though, so there's not much of a debate there. I guess what I'm trying to say is that Clinic seems to have that magical quality that so few bands have (bands like The Smiths and MBV that exist in their own realms) and that's about it. Or, that, and my coffee was far too strong this afternoon.

Tim, I've never heard And You Will Know Us; I do have BoC's first album and think it's pleasant... I don't go nuts for it though.

I heard Internal Wrangler and was pleasantly surprised. No, more than that - I was psyched about it! Then I heard it again... and that VOICE...?? Get that rock out of your ass and start singin, man!

"It's mildly disappointing to see some people dismissing Clinic while there's all this rampant praise for the rehashed Plaid- lite/Brothers- Eno sounds of (Boards) and the somewhat more interesting (than Boards) take on Sonic Youth meets At the Drive-In meets Flickerstick miasma that Trail of Dead usually release."

While I haven't listened to enough BoC to address your thoughts on them, I do find that dismissing ToD for being unoriginal while praising (by implication) Clinic for being new and fresh is sort of funny. I think the way both of these bands approach music is similar. They each seem hyper-aware of who has come before them and, as a result, their records sound informed. Sure, Trail has loads of Sonic Youth and assorted post-punk Brit bands in their sound. But, and especially with ST&C, they take it somewhere new. Not entirely new, but they redirect where that style could take a band. Clinic do the same with the entire late 60s/early 70s canon of proto-punk acts. It's really the same thing. I would say that ToD are a better band than Clinic just because they have progressed from album to album (although most of my friends still argue that the first Trail record is the best), while Clinic, again, in my opinion, have regressed. I guess both have matured, but I just like ToD's maturation more.

And I seriously hope that the Flickerstick allusion comes from heavy drinking and erratic, but sometimes brilliant, performances. If so, then I whole-heartedly agree.

Yancey, those are some very good points, and I'm definitely in agreement that Clinic are certainly not bereft of their own influenes, so my arguments about those other bands showing their influences is somewhat lame. I guess for me it comes down to the influences: I'm not really into the somewhat overwrought Sonic Youth 'Daydream Nation" thing Trail of Dead practiced in the past, and Clinic's take on rock in general just seems more refreshing (to me), slightly more subversive, and a bit less informed by their peers and influences. I enjoy the proto-punk energy of Clinic and their influences that you refer to (as I'm sure you do as well), but I tend to shy away from guitars that pummel me over the head (as Trail of Dead were apt to do in the past). So I'm sure it's all subjective, but I will say that you've peaked my interest in the new Trail of Dead album, so I'll definitely give them more attention than I would have, if the chance arises. I'm eating my words a lot lately, so maybe this will be another case.

Count me in on the disappointed follow up to Internal Wrangler bandwagon, please. Maybe "Walking" will grow on me... I mean, it did take a little while for some of Wrangler's hooks to emerge.

"Yancey, those are some very good points, and I'm definitely in agreement that Clinic are certainly not bereft of their own influenes, so my arguments about those other bands showing their influences is somewhat lame. I guess for me it comes down to the influences: I'm not really into the somewhat overwrought Sonic Youth 'Daydream Nation" thing Trail of Dead practiced in the past, and Clinic's take on rock in general just seems more refreshing (to me), slightly more subversive, and a bit less informed by their peers and influences. I enjoy the proto-punk energy of Clinic and their influences that you refer to (as I'm sure you do as well), but I tend to shy away from guitars that pummel me over the head (as Trail of Dead were apt to do in the past). So I'm sure it's all subjective, but I will say that you've peaked my interest in the new Trail of Dead album, so I'll definitely give them more attention than I would have, if the chance arises. I'm eating my words a lot lately, so maybe this will be another case."

I agree with all the praise you give Clinic, and for those same reasons I love Trail of Dead (who, according to Rolling Stone, are a "post-punk Voltron"). You should absolutely check out ST&C. It's virtually the same as their old records, just a bit subtler. Not so much of the head pummeling of their last albums, although it's still there.

If you want to check out my thoughts on that album, head over to Flakmag.com. Although I say essentially the same thing every other review I have since read says.