Clinic Stars - Only Hinting

It's by no means a legacy label, but it's also rare that Kranky signs a new act these days, rarer still that act fall under the qualification of 'band'. And so the appearance of Clinic Stars brings with it a little extra anticipation just as it does surprise. No pressure and all that, though this isn't entirely the Detroit duo's first rodeo - young as they may be, they've been around for a few years already, having self-released two increasingly compelling EPs of highly romantic dreampop that might not have set the world on fire but found their own slowly winding path to the right ears (mine included, may I add). Only Hinting delivers on the potential of those first outings by making it clear how well suited they are to the label they've ended up on. This is core Kranky curriculum that honestly could have arrived in the labels early imperial era and easily held its own. We hear a lot of this kind of thing these days - via TikTok viral trends no less - but I've heard few modern examples as convincingly conceived. You've the sense of a band who have consumed and understood what it is that makes the likes of Bowery Electric, Flying Saucer Attack, Roy Montgomery so powerful, and have the guile to make it work in their own image. That right mix of the diaphonous and soaring, of desire and intent, all beautifully recorded, and composed with little sense of anything other than its own internal clock. Equal plaudits to the band for pulling it off and Kranky for noting its worth.