Dr. Feelgood - Malpractice (LP) - 50th Anniversary

Dr. Feelgood’s second album, Malpractice, landed in 1975 on United Artists, and it still feels like a bracing shot of Thames Estuary air. The Canvey Island crew were already a menace onstage, but this is where their studio game caught up. You get a fuller, punchier sound than the mono grit of Down by the Jetty, yet nothing about it feels tamed. Producer Vic Maile, working with the band, kept the mics hot and the takes taut, so the record moves like a packed club with the doors flung open.

The lineup here is peak Feelgood. Lee Brilleaux sings and blows harmonica with that salt-and-bleach sting, while Wilko Johnson chops and snaps his Telecaster with that right-hand rhythm-lead technique he loved to talk about in interviews. No plectrum, no fuss, just a percussive thwack that turns three-minute R&B into street theater. John B. “Sparko” Sparks and The Big Figure stay unblinking behind them, a rhythm section that knows when to swing and when to slam shut.

Back in the Night is the Wilko song that anchors the record, a nocturnal strut that sums up the band’s whole worldview. It’s tight, a little dangerous, and built on a riff that sticks to your shoes. The guitars jab, Lee’s vocal smirks, and the harmonica darts in like a barroom bouncer. Their cover choices say plenty too. Riot in Cell Block No. 9 doesn’t get the knowing wink it sometimes does in hands more reverent. They play it like the walls really are closing in, which suits their no-mystique approach to American R&B.

What jumps out, listening front to back, is how exact the attack is. Wilko’s clipped phrasing leaves air for Lee’s harmonica to answer back, and there’s almost no studio trickery distracting from the swing. Maile made his name catching bands in full flight, and you can hear why. Nothing drags. Most tracks stop before you expect them to, the way a great live set keeps you leaning forward between songs. You feel the warm spill of valves, the scrape of fingers on strings, the room in the cymbals.

Malpractice also marks the moment Dr. Feelgood became a proper national force, the step that set up Stupidity to hit number one the following year. You can hear the link to what punk would kick down in 1976, not as a blueprint but as a mood. The tempos are impatient, the guitars are clean and cutting, and the band puts across a sense of purpose that made a lot of future punks rethink what “back to basics” could mean. There’s no swagger-over-songs problem here. The writing holds up. The grooves are built to last.

For all the grit, it’s a very listenable record, which is why Malpractice vinyl ends up on a lot of turntables that usually spin blues and early rock. The stereo picture is wider than the debut, so Wilko’s rhythm figures have space to snap, and Lee’s harp sits in a sweet middle lane. Original United Artists copies aren’t hard to spot if you’re crate digging, and reissues have kept the album in reach for folks who want to buy Dr. Feelgood records online without getting stung by collector prices. If you’re flipping through a Melbourne record store or browsing vinyl records Australia late at night, this is the Feelgood studio title that tends to reel you in.

It also helps that the songs travel well. Back in the Night became a setlist fixture, the kind of fan favorite that makes sense coming out of any era of the band. The covers are chosen with a bar-band brain but executed with a craftsman’s focus. Even if you came to the group through later hits like Milk and Alcohol, going backward to this album feels natural. You get the full quartet at the height of its chemistry, with Wilko still writing sharp, economical tunes and Brilleaux barking and pleading like he was born for the front of the stage.

If you’re curious where to start with Dr. Feelgood albums on vinyl, this is the sweet spot. Down by the Jetty shows the blueprint, Stupidity shows the roar, but Malpractice gives you both the snap and the shape. It’s a record that still smells like salt water and amplifier cloth, a reminder that tight songs and a ruthless band can turn a small room into a legend. And when that needle hits Back in the Night, you’ll understand why this era of Dr. Feelgood vinyl has never gone out of style.