Clinic - Winchester Cathedral

Genre rock Publisher Domino Records

This Liverpool quartet has an undeniable sound: guitars-keybs-drums pulsating on minor key drones, with simple but effective clarinet or melodica lines sidewinding back and forth for melodic interest. Unfortunately, across their three records, they've done nothing with their sound beyond perpetuating it -- because their strategy rarely varies, individual songs rarely leap out, and only album to album do they alter the recipe slightly, via production. On 2002's Walking With Thee, the vibe was cold, sterile, and, shall we say, clinical.

With Bowie producer Ken Scott in the control booth, this time they wisely take a more organic approach that pays off with the first-rate rave up "W.D.Y.Y.B.," as well as a few others that work best when the band tweaks their formula -- dig that '70s soul takeoff "Falstaff." But once again, even though the album impresses on a cut by cut basis, taken as a whole, the margins of differentiation are too minute and subtle for any casual fan to sort through. Maybe if melodica player Ade Blackburn or clarinetist Hartley learned that drones were made to sprinkle alluring melodies on top of rather than to use as an excuse to fall back on three note minimalism, their songs would have more to grab onto. Better vocals might help, too.