Amazon.co.uk Clinic’s third album doesn’t find the surreal, masked Liverpudlian fourpiece venturing in any bold, new directions. Instead, Winchester Cathedral has them heading down the same twisted path as their previous releases. Fans of Clinic will know what to expect, then: twisted and eerie artrock that sounds like Hitchcockian circus music, with the frantic "Country Mile" and its clenched-teeth vocal delivery setting the pace from the outset. All their trademarks are still here, from the whining harmonium to the jerky guitars. So Winchester Cathedral won’t really garner many converts to Clinic’s weirdness. And that’s a shame--for a band that prides itself on its quirkiness, Winchester Cathedral could have done with a bit more experimentation. What sounded fresh and exciting on Internal Wrangler, their 2001 debut album, now just sounds a bit formulaic and, all too often, repetitive. Still, at least their more die-hard fans will appreciate that W inchester Cathedral still sounds resoluteley like a Clinic album, and no one else. Few bands can boast that. --Robert Burrow