Hinds
I Don’t Run
Pod/Inertia
The oft-heard term “it’s all been done before” has been thrown around for decades. This is primarily based on the simplistic assumption that no new music is original because it’s likely to rehash a single music style, band or aesthetic. What’s so clever about Spanish band Hinds is that they draw musically from EVERYTHING that’s come before and they mix it up in a glorious melodic mush, bound together with the best distorted vocal sound since The Strokes’ first record.
Hinds channel personal experience and circumstance (I can’t help make the assumption based on their cultural background that they see no difference between The Chiffons and Veruca Salt). The nasal snarl of Carlotta Cosials and the huskier tones of Ana Perrote compliment and contrast like the best duos in the history of rock in all their overlapping, melodic glory.
I Don’t Run is the band’s second full length release, following their impressive debut Leave Me Alone. A year playing around the world has clearly influenced the lyrical content of the record and its air of camaraderie and gang mentality. Opening with The Club, this is hands down the best song of their career so far competing with a couple others I’ll get to. Rumbling bass and kick drum give way to a guitar riff that Pavement could have written in 1992.
On Soberland the whole group chant the chorus in joyous errant pitch. This phenomenon in their sound and the band’s eschewing of guitar heroics has earned them the expected misogynistic ire in YouTube comments from insecure male musicians who obviously can’t write songs as good as these. New For You and Tester are pure 60s girl group with the saturated vocals even suggesting an AM radio sound.
Finally Floating and I Feel Cold But I Feel More have a slightly more druggy feel and the band has also not shied away from a slow, introspective songs such as Linda. They perhaps miss the mark with only a couple weaker songs like The Morning Light and Echoing My Name which fail to add to their infectious mythology.
Melodically strong, lyrically unapologetic and also brimming with fun, I Don’t Run admittedly isn’t for everybody, but the best stuff never is.
ADEM K
