This Spanish four-piece are known for their motto “Our Sh**, Our Rules”, one which they’ve really taken under their belts to fulfil with their debut Leave Me Alone. The album features 12 tracks which are a mix of new material (such as ‘Garden’), and some older singles such as ‘Bamboo’ and ‘Castigadas en el granero’ (roughly translating to Punished at the Barn). Opener ‘Garden’ sets the tone with the classic jangly guitar and overlapping vocals that we have come to expect from Hinds. Lyrically they’re clever, creating relatable stories for the audience such as ‘I can take you dancing, use me to feel home, it’s the same old story of the bad boy’. Their lyrics are poetic, slightly eery.
The second track, ‘Fat Calmed Kiddos’, is my personal favourite from the album. They layer their music, using many simple melodies and rifts repeatedly layered on top of each other to create a texture. They simply sound European, in a way we can’t quite pin down, and the strong vocals almost remind of a Front Bottoms-esque like aspect to it. And I’m a sucker for overlapping vocals: Ana and Carlotta’s voices harmonise and compliment each other well.
A few tracks later you get to ‘Castigadas en el Granero’, where the vocals become slightly shouty, but also more harmonic. Think Blondie and the Runaways: this song screams the more grungy angle they’re going for and they really attract the anger-fueled. This theme returns in ‘And I Will Send your Flowers Back’, a song slightly more emotional than their other ones, maybe even ballad-esque.
An album, which on the whole is bouncier and more jubilant than the final piece, has a sense of gravelled beauty to it, anchored by the honesty of lyrics and the light-hearted music. For me, the second half of the album is a little more successful than the first. A little less of vocals verging on spoken-word and a little more layering to the music means it just has that bit more depth to it.
I offer congratulations to Hinds, for getting out of Spain even when they were told they never would. With a European tour lined up for them post-album release, I feel like 2016 really is going to be their year. There is something about listening to Hinds that just makes you feel slightly cooler – and I’ll be honest, I sat playing the jumping deer game on their website for longer than I should care to admit while writing this.
Leave Me Alone comes out January 8th on Lucky Number. Find it on iTunes or Amazon.
Words by Megan Bakewell