Exclusive video premiere of ‘Parallel Lines’ by Crossword Smiles, taken from their upcoming debut album, out this September via Big Stir Records.

The new duo’s debut single ‘Parallel Lines’ finds Michigan indie pop veterans Tom Curless (of Your Gracious Host and solo renown) and Chip Saam (The Hangabouts and Curless’s backing band The 46%) exploring new sonic textures and lyrical landscapes under a brand new name. ‘Parallel Lines’ is the first hint of what fans can expect when the debut album from Crossword Smiles sees release on Big Stir Records this Fall.

And what an introduction it is. Crossword Smiles start as they mean to go on, evoking the heyday and sophisticated textures of ’80s college rock and applying them to the kind of classic pop-rock song structures and melodies at which Curless and Saam both excel. With upfront harmonies that recall Crowded House and flourishes inspired by touchstones as diverse as Fountains Of Wayne and Steely Dan, it’s a taut and mysterious relationship study that opens up into an unforgettable chorus. If it strikes you that those influences add up to a sound that could only be described as “timeless”, you’re starting to get the picture. ‘Parallel Lines’ would sound great on the radio in any decade.

The video for the song, directed by Madeline Curless, is, like the band, equal parts humorous and mysterious, retro-leaning and forward-looking. Framed by very-80s video tech (VHS tapes, MTV iconography, period-perfect local news weather report green screen) and featuring Tom and Chip in a number of roles, it’s sly but not over-the-top. It also leans into the title, with the titular parallel lines visualized again and again, to often surprising effect. Like the band, the visuals are restless with their points of reference, and like the song and the forthcoming album, it’s something other than nostalgic. There’s the texture and the grit of an era some remember — and others have only absorbed via modern media like “Stranger Things” — but the overall effect is beyond any timeframe, letting the viewer know that Crossword Smiles is chasing something altogether new.

And there’s more to come. Album will be released on LP and CD. For now, though, marvel at this first preview of a new approach to indie pop from two of its most reliable practitioners. There’s something in a name: Crossword Smiles demonstrates both the melodic deftness of Saam and Curless in puzzling out a whole new sound, and just how much fun they had doing so.

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