Child’s Play:
There’s a lot of youthful exuberance to Madrid four-piece Hinds’ chaotic second album. Every song is packed with spindly riffs and shouty vocals that recalls the snotty early records of Weezer and the Strokes.
Unlike those obvious influences, however, there’s a cheerful innocence to the songs. Although grungy anthem Tester touches on the thorny subject of sex, for the most part there’s an emphasis on the childlike, with deliberately off-key vocals and lyrics that recall playground slogans, such as ‘I hate your guts!’ on Soberland.
A couple of quieter, lo-fi songs apparently recorded in a garden (complete with birdsong) offer a little respite. The stripped down, acoustic number Ma Nuit in particular (the only song to feature lyrics in Spanish) suggests that the band might mature in an interesting direction, but right now listening to them is a bit like supervising a children’s party: fun at first but exhausting after a while.
This review first appeared in the Belfast Telegraph
James JW Robinson 