June 12, 1999

Clinic : Second line, the

Just about within sight of [B]The Flaming Lips[/B] for sheer innovative brio, [B]'The Second Line'[/B] confirms that the debasement of rock's accepted parameters is at the top of [a]Clinic[/a]'s [B]'T

Just about within sight of The Flaming Lips for sheer innovative brio, 'The Second Line' confirms that the debasement of rock's accepted parameters is at the top of Clinic's 'Things To Do' list. In common with their previous three singles, this Domino debut succeeds in quite blatantly stealing bits from other people's songs and absorbing these components into what has already become Clinic's hallmark wall of paranoid sound, making something authentically new in the process. So now we know what Suicide covering LL Cool J's 'Phenomenon' with John Lennon on vocals would have been like, except even that fantasy combo couldn't have sounded quite as disconsolately wired as this.

"Teeky-teeky-to-momenon", Ade Blackburn intones,
amidst his band's adroitly choreographed gasps, groans and bits of broken guitar. It may be non-sense, strictly speaking, but you know exactly what he means.

JAMES OLDHAM