To quote Agatha Christie, “And then there were two.” Viva Hinds, the latest album by Spanish indie rockers Hinds, finds the quartet cut in half after the departure of bassist Ade Martin and drummer Amber Grimbergen. In a way, Hinds splitting personnel-wise is a return to form. The band’s remaining members, Carlotta Cosials and Ana García Perrote, are also the project’s founders who began as a duo way back in 2011. Back then the two called themselves Deers. Titling their latest full-length Viva Hinds is, in a not-so-subtle way, Carlotta and Ana shouting, “We ain’t goin’ anywhere!”
Opening with a chugging garage rock guitar, Cosials and García Perrote engage in a short back and forth that starts, “Hi, how are you …” with the other responding, “Fine, thanks, and you? …” Just before the one-minute mark the song explodes with the two singing, “Well if the skies are falling down, and when I’m done crying my eyes out, you and me we won’t remember, the last time that we fell in love with someone.” The song, appropriately titled “Hi, How Are You”, is about two friends consoling one another after the loss of love. Moreover, perhaps, it’s a declaration of solidarity and, as the album cover’s photo would suggest, Carlotta and Ana declaring to the world that, whatever happens, they’ll always have each other’s back.
Beck makes a guest appearance on the album’s second single, “Boom Boom Back”, offering up a couple vocal lines to this song about a woman having ambivalent feelings about hitting the club after having her heart broken. Not to be outdone, Fontaines D.C.’s Grian Chatten duets on “Stranger”, a song that, at least musically, is half New Order and half Camera Obscura. Both back-to-back “guest appearance” tracks make for a smart pairing sequentially.
“Mala Vista” and “En Forma” are Viva Hinds’ only two songs sung entirely in Spanish. The former is just okay. The latter is an absolute earworm of a track that may have you singing the chorus of “mírame no puedo más” to yourself for hours after. Hinds’ latest album is concluded with “Bon Voyage”. The record’s final moment acts as a bookend, in that it, again, features Ana and Carlotta trading lines, albeit this time they’re singing in a mockingly coquettish way that could be interpreted as the two’s way of taunting their detractors. All told, the duo’s latest effort is a solid piece of work that holds its own well within the band’s discography. Viva Hinds indeed.
Rating: 7.5/10
