Whether you found out about them when they were called Deers, saw them live playing as Hinds, or just know them as that really really cool girl band from Madrid – this Spanish quartet are sure to have made a strong impression. The garage rock outfit miraculously came out of no-where, only deciding to start a band after best mates Ana Perrote and Carlotta Cosials chose to learn how to play the guitar while bored on holiday. What resulted were the singles ‘Bamboo’ and ‘Trippy Gum’ which they recorded in March 2014 with fellow Madrid garage rock band The Parrots who also produced Leave Me Alone. Somehow their music found our shores and Deers began to get a crazy amount of hype across the musical blogosphere forcing them to become a touring band. With the addition of Ade Martin on bass and Amber Grimbergen on drums, they found themselves playing around Europe and supporting The Libertines, The Vaccines and The Black Keys in 2014. The beginning of 2015 saw Deers have the tricky job of renaming themselves to Hinds (another word for a female deer) due to Canadian non-outfit The Dears (named and shamed), and yet still managed to ride the wave they had created for themselves and embarked on their first world tour. Incredible really as they only had two single releases (Demo and Barn) to their name, and even had to repeat songs for their encore at the end of their last Brighton show. Now at beginning of 2016, Hinds release their debut album.

‘Garden’ starts the album off in fine Hinds fashion with an inviting intro of loose guitar strums that immediately evoke the surf and sun on an easy Sunday afternoon – the term that comes to mind is meticulously chilled. In the interview I did with Ana, she said that the songs are about love (“It feels like these songs are twelve different faces”) and this definitely runs true from the beginning as Carlotta and Ana overlap vocals and sing of relationship frustrations – “I feel like I’m freezing again / And you won’t say you’re bored anymore.” Themes continue in ‘Fat Calmed Kiddos’, my album favourite, where Carlotta sings “Why are you always on my mind?” atop of a Pixies-esque beat that jauntily goes from fast to slow thanks to Ade’s grooving bass line. The most recently written track on the album, ‘Warts’, has an amazingly catchy guitar riff and chorus that you will never be able get out of your head, holding all the cool witty charm that Hinds have in absolute bucket loads.

Matured versions of previously released tracks ‘Castigadas En El Granero’, ‘Chili Town’ and ‘Bamboo’ also make themselves onto the album, reminding you why you fell in love with Hinds in the first place. The haphazard woozy lo-fi rock’n’roll jams brim with joy, nostalgia and the girls infectious playful charisma, and they are sure to make the most sullen of rooms into a place of blissful effervescence. Perhaps the most unexpected track on the album is the sleepy instrumental ‘Solar Gap’. Situated in the middle of the album, this pensive moment gives the listener a bit of solace from Hinds wonderfully chaotic goodness.

The album title, Leave Me Alone, hints at the bands phenomenally quick assent into the global lime-light and yet this is sure to be just the beginning. Time will be the bands biggest asset, as the more Hinds play and more experiences they have will only add to their growing talent. Tracks like ‘Garden’, ‘Fat Calmed Kiddos’ and the mellow melancholic ‘I’ll Be Your Man’ gives light to the bands bright future and to where they can take their unpretentious jangly rock-pop magic.

Iain Lauder

Website: hindsband.com
Facebook: facebook.com/hindsband
Twitter: twitter.com/hindsband