Clinic – Bubblegum

Way back in the Britpop days there was always something vaguely sinister about Clinic: a gang of Liverpudlians in surgical masks who wanted to do twisted things to your young, innocent, Oasis-loving soul. Well those days may be gone but the menace lives on. Even though their sixth long player Bubblegum sees a softening of their sometimes challenging sound, there is a dark psychedelic menace waiting to spirit us away.

The spiralling organ on The Lion Tamer is part of it, but so is the frankly bonkers spoken-word monologue on Radiostory, and the way the snatched Spanish refrain from that song returns and grows into the Una Astronauta En Cielo. Nothing’s too immediate, but that’s not a weakness – a true pop song here would stand out like a golfball-shaped tumour on the operating table. When Bubblegum finds its tripped out ending in Orangutan, you’re glad they’ve lasted the distance, surgical masks and all. [PJ Meiklem]