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“Walking with Thee” – Clinic
(Words/music: Clinic, available on Walking with Thee, Domino 2002)

I go long stretches of time in between listens to Clinic, but when I hear a song like “Walking with Thee,” I feel like I still know every twist and turn.  It’s not that it’s a predictable song; instead, I spent a lot of time learning these songs passively by listening to it repeatedly.  Every play, whether putting the “Walking with Thee” single on my record player, putting the album on, or letting the songs pass through on shuffle, offered another opportunity to commit another part of the song to those deep recesses of memory where things like this lie in deep storage until needed.  I probably go weeks without actively thinking about a band like Clinic, but as soon as the song starts, it’s like those neurons in my brain immediately know where to find the case file, carefully built up over years of sporadic listens.

As a song, “Walking with Thee” feels like a time capsule not only because it comes right back when I hear it, but also because it feels like it belongs in another era.  It sounds like a distorted modern take on the late 1960s garage rock genre.  The lead organ riff could fit in on the Nuggets compilation if they played it on vintage equipment.  The arrangement stays simple, riding this superb riff and a fairly simple, repetitive lyric, gently shifting from segment to segment.  On one level, this sounds like something the kids down the street could play.  However, just like the first wave of garage rock, some intangible separates songs like this from the amateurs.  In this case, it’s a general sense of uncertainty that haunts the song.  No single element points at it, but I feel a minor sense of dread in the deepest part of the song.  Perhaps from listening to other Clinic songs, it’s a weird feeling of paranoia that something else lies in the song.  Regardless, it’s this deviation from the more carefree garage rock of the 1960s that distinguishes “Walking with Thee” from its predecessors.

More on Clinic: Allmusic | Amazon MP3 | Emusic | Last.fm