Hinds – “Viva Hinds”

It’s fair to say that it has been a somewhat turbulent year for Hinds with half the band deciding to quit. We were gutted to hear that news and there must have been serious concerns over the future of the band. Thankfully, Carlotta Cosials and Ana García Perrote made the decision to continue to make music as Hinds.

Opening song “Hi, How Are You” suggests that they are facing the adversity experienced with a sense of determination. It’s a call to arms type song which is also one of the best songs they have written. That’s a trend across the album where tracks like “The Bed, The Room, The Rain” are what you might call a quintessential Hinds song, but there is an extra level of quality which escalates them beyond their previous releases.

Although things transcend to an even higher level with the awesome single “Boom Boom Back”. Listeners of BBC Radio 6 will have heard this featuring heavily on their playlist. That’s no surprise as it’s a cracking song. On it’s own merit you’d expect it to be their big break through hit, the fact that it also features Beck surely guarantees that. He’s not the only guest on the album as Grian Chatten of Fontaines DC is on “Stranger”. So it would appear the band have received lots of industry support to continue to create music.

Not that they should have needed any convincing, where their ability to deliver is shown by the understated but excellent “Superstar”. The strength of the bands ongoing confidence in their music is shown with “Mala Vista” and “En Forma” which are sung in Spanish. They’re both great indie rockers which have no issues being instantly enjoyable without any language barrier issues. Whilst this album represents a clear development in terms of the style, it is important that songs like “On My Own” and “Coffee” show that the band haven’t lost any of the fun and sense of spontaneity that attracted us, and we’re sure many of their fans, to them in the first place.

We are absolutely delighted that the band have continued. We are sure there were moments of doubt but none of that is evident in the music on this release. We have always loved the band and this is definitely their best release to date. How the former members will feel after hearing this would be interesting to know! But for Carlotta and Ana they must be delighted to have had their courage to continue be rewarded with such a great release.