Clinic Do It! CD

Released in 2008, Clinic's fifth full-length studio album, DO IT!, upholds the U.K. indie-rock band's revered reputation with typically edgy verve. While frontman Ade Blackburn's high, reedy voice and moody keyboard lines give the Liverpool-based group some lift, the rest of Clinic grounds the proceedings in jagged guitars and tight rhythms, creating an intriguing tension that's best evinced on the dynamic "Free Not Free," and "The Witch (Made to Measure)," an appropriately eerie and urgent tune. Easily one of the most consistent ensembles on the British indie scene, Clinic remains a fascinating act more than a decade into its existence, a point that DO IT! readily reinforces.

Audio Mixer: Jacquire King .

Recording information: Princes Building, Liverpool, England.Spin (p.92) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "The band play up the tension, tossing blistering riffs into mellow ballads and lacing eerie stomps with folk textures; the result is some of the loosest, most fascinating music of their career."
Uncut (p.92) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "[With] one of their best songs, 'Free Not Free,' a haunted lullaby that might've anchored the MIDNIGHT COWBOY soundtrack."
Alternative Press (p.134) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[T]he group propel the compelling and uptempo 'The Witch (Made To Measure)' and 'Shopping Bag' through heavily buzzing static and an occasionally confused amalgam of sounds without sounding convoluted or overly done. Their winning streak is still intact."
Magnet (p.98) - "DO IT! is a prickly record filled with dense guitars, stuttering rhythms and vocals alternately blared and whispered. It's art pop, but it's pop to be sure..."
Q (Magazine) (p.130) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "Their fifth album proper finds them predictably unpredictable: 'Free Not Free' is a gorgeously mellow lounge track....Unique weird, as usual."
Blender (Magazine) (p.75) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "[The album] stops in at a psychedelic soul lounge and vespers at the church of John Coltrane. This is headstrong music that dares you to unlock its esoteric mysteries..."
Paste (magazine) (p.67) - "Clinic shows uncanny skill at recapturing the production values of the Brian Jones-era Stones, The Animals and Them, pub rockers Dr. Feelgood and even '60s soul."
Pitchfork (Website) - "[T]his new album might be Clinic's most adventurous since INTERNAL WRANGLER....[Blackburn] has aced a perplexing syntax that gives these songs a labyrinthe, off-putting sense of psychological unease."
Clash (magazine) (p.110) - "Opening with the swing organs of 'Memories', the album soon struts into a free-for-all of musical styles....A concept album of sorts..."
Record Collector (magazine) (p.90) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "This is acid through the looking glass; mutant melodies that are barely controllable in whichever world these crumbling and wide-eyed music-makers skilfully skulk."