The full-length debut by Detroit duo Giovanna Lenski and Christian Molik aka Clinic Stars both refines and redefines their pitch-perfect fusion of downer-pop balladry and featherweight shoegaze: Only Hinting. Recorded and produced at the band’s home studio, the album was crafted across 2022 and 2023, patiently layering FX and spatial depths to give each song a swirling, subconscious undertow. From the strummed whirlpool of “I Am The Dancer” to the gated reverb of “Remain” to the greyscale guitar reverie of “Isn’t It,” the record aches as much as moves, daydreaming of escape and transcendence.

The group cite a desire to leave their “industrial environment” as muse, although the songs also revel in the romance of longing itself, in the beauty of hearts grown distant. The duo’s previous EPs, 10,000 Dreams (2021) and April’s Past (2022), captured a similarly swooning slowcore palette, but Only Hinting hits different. Here haze is as much instrument as texture, gauze and melody married as one, traced in elegant arcs across cities streaked in shadow.