Clinic Stars - Only Hinting (2024)
BAND/ARTIST: Clinic Stars
- Title: Only Hinting
- Year Of Release: 2024
- Label: kranky
- Genre: dream pop
- Quality: 16-44100 FLAC
- Total Time: 00:38:04
- Total Size: 218 MB
- WebSite: Album Preview
Detroit dream pop duo Clinic Stars craft a love-letter to shoegaze's extended canon on their debut album, paying respects to Slowdive, Cocteau Twins, Julee Cruise and later genre upsetters Hood and Belong with richly layered ethereal reveries that hang in the air like silk.
Perfect Kranky material, 'Only Hinting' is a nostalgic blast of cool air that's refreshingly free of cynicism. Giovanna Lenski and Christian Molik haven't released much, but we can easily trace their inspirations - their last EP, 2022's 'April's Past', looked like a remnant of 4AD's beloved '80s run, with pitch-perfect artwork in the style of Vaughan Oliver. The duo's music extends the notion, capturing the luster and sublime sadness of Cocteau Twins' 'Heaven or Las Vegas' and splitting it with the syrupy grandeur of early Low, muddling the mixture with waves of gloopy ambience. Lenski's airy, weightless vocals are an immediate draw, sounding like an angelic composite of Liz Fraser, Hope Sandoval and Rachel Goswell - and although we'd usually be skeptical of this kind of direct tracing, Clinic Stars succeed by transcending the aesthetic qualities and capturing the sound's beating heart.
There's a languorous slowness to Lenski's delivery that roots them in the present, even as Clinic Stars give nods to Slowdive's brightest and best gear ('I am the Dancer'), MBV's obsessive sculpted distortion ('She Won't Be') and the Cocteaus at their most velveteen ('Only Hinting'). She doesn't go in for acrobatics, and Molik takes a similar approach to his production, layering the elements cautiously and knowing exactly when to stop. The album sounds almost like a heads-only mixtape of dream pop and shoegaze's most inscrutable off-cuts, woven together with undulating ambient passages that help suspend the songs in much-needed mystery. They wear their influences on their sleeve, but they don't opt for the easiest route, never sacrificing emotion for varnish. Molik's guitar phrases overlap into spiraling, Talk Talk-like chimes on 'Isn't It', shifting over his cobwebby drums; Lenski's vocals almost turn into pads, fizzing beneath the ambience as the track gently slides into a tempered wall of distortion.
Tracklist:
1-1. Clinic Stars - Kissing Through the Veil (02:54)
1-2. Clinic Stars - Only Hinting (05:40)
1-3. Clinic Stars - I am the Dancer (06:25)
1-4. Clinic Stars - Remain (04:43)
1-5. Clinic Stars - She Won't Be (05:51)
1-6. Clinic Stars - Shiver (Walking Over Time) (04:04)
1-7. Clinic Stars - Isn't It (03:45)
1-8. Clinic Stars - Thoughtless (04:42)
Perfect Kranky material, 'Only Hinting' is a nostalgic blast of cool air that's refreshingly free of cynicism. Giovanna Lenski and Christian Molik haven't released much, but we can easily trace their inspirations - their last EP, 2022's 'April's Past', looked like a remnant of 4AD's beloved '80s run, with pitch-perfect artwork in the style of Vaughan Oliver. The duo's music extends the notion, capturing the luster and sublime sadness of Cocteau Twins' 'Heaven or Las Vegas' and splitting it with the syrupy grandeur of early Low, muddling the mixture with waves of gloopy ambience. Lenski's airy, weightless vocals are an immediate draw, sounding like an angelic composite of Liz Fraser, Hope Sandoval and Rachel Goswell - and although we'd usually be skeptical of this kind of direct tracing, Clinic Stars succeed by transcending the aesthetic qualities and capturing the sound's beating heart.
There's a languorous slowness to Lenski's delivery that roots them in the present, even as Clinic Stars give nods to Slowdive's brightest and best gear ('I am the Dancer'), MBV's obsessive sculpted distortion ('She Won't Be') and the Cocteaus at their most velveteen ('Only Hinting'). She doesn't go in for acrobatics, and Molik takes a similar approach to his production, layering the elements cautiously and knowing exactly when to stop. The album sounds almost like a heads-only mixtape of dream pop and shoegaze's most inscrutable off-cuts, woven together with undulating ambient passages that help suspend the songs in much-needed mystery. They wear their influences on their sleeve, but they don't opt for the easiest route, never sacrificing emotion for varnish. Molik's guitar phrases overlap into spiraling, Talk Talk-like chimes on 'Isn't It', shifting over his cobwebby drums; Lenski's vocals almost turn into pads, fizzing beneath the ambience as the track gently slides into a tempered wall of distortion.
Tracklist:
1-1. Clinic Stars - Kissing Through the Veil (02:54)
1-2. Clinic Stars - Only Hinting (05:40)
1-3. Clinic Stars - I am the Dancer (06:25)
1-4. Clinic Stars - Remain (04:43)
1-5. Clinic Stars - She Won't Be (05:51)
1-6. Clinic Stars - Shiver (Walking Over Time) (04:04)
1-7. Clinic Stars - Isn't It (03:45)
1-8. Clinic Stars - Thoughtless (04:42)
Year 2024 | Pop | Ambient | FLAC / APE
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