San Francisco – Madrid’s newest export Hinds originally started out as a duo known as Deers, consisting of the two lead vocalists/guitarists Carlotta Cosials and Ana García Perrote, and swiftly grew to include Ade Martin on bass and drummer Amber Grimbergen after the initial success of their demo of the single “Bamboo,” which caught the attention of numerous blogs and fellow musicians (including The Black Keys’ Patrick Carney and Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie) back in early 2014. Now, almost two years and one legal battle over the band name later (headed by Canadian band The Dears), they’ve released their first proper LP, Leave Me Alone, a gritty, lo-fi twelve-song collection that clocks in at just under forty minutes. The terrain the Spanish quartet navigates is both unique and familiar, blending charmingly offbeat vocal stylings with no-frills instrumentation that takes cues from The Velvet Underground and Ty Segall and everything in between. It’s the kind of recording that sounds best at 256 kbps, as anything clearer would almost seem detrimental and dishonest to the band’s chosen sound.
The whole thing kicks off with a stormy chord procession that leads into “Garden,” the single the band released in conjunction with the announcement of Leave Me Alone last fall. Cosials and Perrote bounce pouty lyrics off one another, begging for a second chance at a relationship that is on the verge of crumbling (‘show me the rules again/because I’ll play it’). This is a common theme for the album, as evident in the following track “Fat Calmed Kiddos”—in which frontier land-laced guitar is coolly mixed with words of erroneous behavior—and lead single “Bamboo”—the band’s first release that synthesizes goopy reverb and plucky bass lines into a sandstorm of sound that perfectly underscores the two vocalists laying their insecurities on the line (‘And how could I show you without losing all our time/That I am not always gonna run behind’). The bareness of their words and their arrangements position both the subject of the song and the listener into a place of relatable familiarity; it’s both simple and arresting.
Despite the title of the LP, Leave Me Alone, much of the album’s songs seem to be pleading for some sort of attention. “Chili Town” is a song that details the well-known feeling of helplessness one feels in a situation of mutual attraction in which the other party refuses to make a move (‘I am touching without hands, because your skin looks shy’), while “San Diego” and “Warts” both relate a sense of frustration as the narrator fights against the self-destructive behavior of their subject, be it an obsession with a drug-addled social life (“San Diego”) or another, ill-fitting woman (“Warts”). “Castigadas en el Granero” (translated as “Punished in the Barn”) also seems to play into the need for some sort of attention, this time from a sort of authoritative figure that wants to dampen the freedom of our narrators: ‘Daddy, let me go.’
Like any album, Hinds ’ debut LP shares a softer side too, most notably in the gorgeously mellow instrumental track “Solar Gap,” as well as in the LP’s three final tracks. “And I Will Send Your Flowers Back” is an achy ballad that drips with melancholy persistence, while “I’ll Be Your Man,” promises to take care of one that has fallen into despair, as the girls coo ‘And I’ll clean your blood of all that venom/That keeps you fighting with every mirror.’ The final track, “Walking Home,” begins with the beautiful lyrics, ‘Sorry, you’re the one that I love/I can tell you that you’re my favorite song,’ and ends with a simple ‘I really really really love your eyes.’ In between those two lines, our heroines tell their subject every reason that they belong together, making for a tender, subtle exit for an LP that up until the end is rife with brusque declarations.
Hinds ’ sound is a welcome relief to those bogged-down by the prevalence of digitized music that dominates the airwaves and streaming services of today. It’s analog in its truest form: four girls, four instruments, two voices, a handful of amps. There’s no over-producing or overly verbose lyrics, just simplicity and honesty. I always find it interesting when non-Anglo-European acts decide to sing in English, but I guess that’s what makes it more marketable. Sometimes their language isn’t 100% grammatically correct, but who cares? The brokenness adds to its authenticity, and authenticity is one thing that music is surely lacking in these days.
Leave Me Alone is now available via Lucky Number. Hinds is currently on tour in Europe and the UK until March and plans to hit North America later this year. For more information, visit their Facebook page.
Corey Bell
Latest posts by Corey Bell (see all)
- Jagwar Ma’s ‘Every Now & Then’ is Quite the Ride - July 31, 2017
- 2 New Bands at Voodoo Music Festival Day 3 - November 4, 2016
- 5 New Bands at Voodoo Music Festival Day 2 - October 30, 2016
Pingback: Public Access T.V. Share New Track, Debut LP Out 9.30.16
Pingback: HINDS Announce Leave Me Alone Deluxe, Video & US Tour - Best New Bands