The members of England’s Clinic are up to their surgical masks in Nuggets-worthy psychedelic splendor, from the bass-driven pulse of an opening track — whose instrumental section could practically pass for the Yardbirds paying tribute to the Far East — to the dark narcotic haze that hovers over “Gideon.” On “Animal/Human,” the band sounds like it’s covering some old Phil Spector girl-group classic while fried on acid. With an unexpected Shaft guitar break and Ade Blackburn slurring every word, you may think you’re on acid too. “Paradise ” crawls like the Drifters on cough syrup under the boardwalk, and they sign off with a haunting ballad. But the tracks that flat-out rock are often just as brilliant, if closer in spirit to the Seeds side of the Nuggets tracks — from “Children of Kellogg,” whose loping bass is pretty much a mirror image of the first cut, to the thrashing garage-punk abandon of “Tusk” (a track you won’t confuse with Fleetwood Mac). It may not appear on as many year-end lists as the group’s earliest efforts, but you won’t find many more inspired artyfacts from this, the modern psychedelic era.
This article appears in Jan 31 – Feb 6, 2007.