Hinds - Leave Me Alone

It’s all very formulaic: twangtastic ‘60’s guitars, easy drumbeats and dual vocals with little change of pace and virtually no light and shade, which is a big issue for me. Perhaps it’s too lo-fi for my taste: each time there’s a chorus it brings new hope that’s never quite rewarded by a shriek of excitement as a result being swept off your feet, actually or metaphorically. Similarly, the ballsy bass bit at the end of Garden, which isn’t a euphemism, seems rather wasted in its isolation. Warts’ guitar lines offer more purpose with the sing-a-long “bah-da-bah-da-bah-da-bah” giving some encouragement while those in Castigadas En El Granero have an increased level of force but neither is enough to make me want to hunt down Hinds’ entire catalogue. Sigh. It all seems rather repetitive and lacklustre. To my ears, all the cracking little bits – Chili Town’s “I am swimming the in dark ‘cos all your friends are sharks”, the magically-evoked dappled sunshine of instrumental Solar, and some sweet almost call-and-response grrrl vocals – will work better live and lift the rest of the compressed scrappy garage atop of the neo-surf wave Hinds seem so desperate to ride.