Like Badly Drawn Boy, Liverpudlian avant-popsters Clinic are concerned with matters of family and identity on their fourth album, which seems imbued with tribal notions of seasonal ritual. It's most openly expressed in tracks such as "Family", which opens the album with a juddering Velvets-style riff streaked with slide guitar, and "Harvest", in which the tribe is instructed to "batten down and button up, 'cause all the family needs you".  Full text...

For all the small forward steps the band takes on Visitations, however, Clinic still sounds like the same old band (they could stand to lose that melodica), and that may be enough to keep some listeners away.  Full text...

For all the possibilities suggested by their debut album, Clinic are threatening to become the sort of rock band of which you only really need to own one album, and that album remains Internal Wrangler.  Full text...

If you’ve heard Clinic before, you will have heard this record before, though that’s not necessarily a flaw.   Full text...

Described as 'party-record' by comparison to previous albums, 'Visitations' is, for all its peculiarities a more accessible record; primitive, direct, surreal and given the band's credit history, surprisingly generous.  Full text...

Undeniably Visitations is a haunting listen - but unlike horror-movie ghosts, it's a haunting you can easily escape.  Full text...