Album: Clinic - Do It! (Domino)

Last year, Clinic cleared house with rarities collection, Funf. As underwhelming as it is, it could prove to be the band's most significant statement, as their fifth studio album, Do It! sees Clinic make their first steps forward since their classic debut, Internal Wrangler.

Do It! eschews the scratchy D.I.Y. aesthetic that has atrophied Clinic's career over the last three albums and goes for a pin-sharp production style, but most importantly, the Liverpudlians have knuckled down on the songwriting front, making Do It! their most immediately likeable album in eight years.

Clinic haven't lost any of the idiosyncrasies that have formed their sound since inception, but their quirks no longer overpower the songs. This is clear from the outset with the fractured psych-punk-stomp, 'Memories', which alternates between Nuggets fuzz and eerie prog-pop melodic interludes, but the transition never jars, serving the overall feel of playful schizophrenia. Elsewhere, 'Emotions' is a woozy dreamboat sway that Johnny Ray would have been proud of, 'The Witch' is the closest they've come to the spirit of The Monks without aping them outright, while the overdriven sax and violence whirlwind of 'Shopping Bag' is thrillingly bracing.

Ade Blackburn's tortured sneer is as simultaneously malevolent and vulnerable as it's ever been and on 'Free Not Free' channels an eloquent grace not tapped since 'Distortions'. All of which makes Do It! Clinic's best full-length since their first and quite possibly their best full stop. What a pleasant surprise.

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