Clinic - Bubblegum

We’re not sure what they’ve put in the tea around here, but suddenly the ground seems to consist of pastel pink marshmallows and over there – look! – there’s a rainbow made of multicoloured liquorice and flowers delicately fashioned from neon coloured spun sugar. This is the ultimate sugar-rush crazy world as conjured up on the appropriately sweet sounding new album ‘Bubblegum’ from Liverpudlian synth wizards Clinic. These days the band are a more mellow prospect than ever before, morphing increasingly into the blissed out surreal hillbillies they always threatened (or should that be promised?) to become. Mind you, what better time to really chill out a bit and ease right back on the pace than on your sixth album?

Recent single and album opener ‘I’m Aware’ sets the whole lopsided, lackadaisical tone, bumbling along with more than a nod to fellow ditsy daydreamers Super Furry Animals - in fact, further glimpses of their homage to those loveable Super Furries can be seen on the fantasy land video to accompany the track – complete with cutely creepy wonky felt animal puppets.

Occasionally Clinic veer dangerously near to dishevelled busker territory as on ‘Linda’, as if the most depressed man on the street with his guitar is suddenly whisked away by a passing spaceship full of drooling aliens…which probably makes this track sound way more wildly exciting than it actually is. As lovely as their mellow groove can be, Clinic sometimes seem blissfully unaware that they need just a hint of a beat or woozy synths tinkling somewhere in the background to help them avoid veering deep into the Valley of Tweeness.

More often than not, though, they strike musical jackpot with melodies tumbling out like so many gold coins. ‘Another Way Of Giving’ is a great example of this wobbly genius, with its sumptuous clash of gravelly vocals combining oddly with medieval dulcimers, like Bob Dylan chasing the Lady of Shallott around some ancient castle’s ramparts. ‘Evelyn’ ramps up the butt kicking beats, as straight forward a stomping rock out as you’re likely to get with this band of otherworldy brothers. All your expectations with a track called ‘Un Astronauta En Cielo’ are confounded – unless you were already imagining a bossa nova instumental with some twinkly synths sparkling away in the background, like ‘Space Oddity’ re-imagined by the Buena Vista Social Club. Second guessing Clinic is a futile game to play, that’s for sure. But you can’t really ask for more than tiny slivers of genius wrapped in luscious synths and swirling merry-go-round beats, can you?

To listen to ‘Bubblegum’ is like chomping on Willy Wonka’s Three Course Dinner Chewing Gum – with all the same oddly strange and possibly disturbing side effects (remember what happened to blueberry-morphing Violet Beauregarde?). You might be fooled into thinking it’s simply candy but don’t underestimate the fantastical power of ‘Bubblegum’ to whisk you off on a one way ticket to a mysterious, slightly sinister dreamland far, far away.