Firstly, that title merits an exclamation mark, surely?
That’s better.
And that exclamation mark isn’t just fucking deserved, it’s fucking mandatory, because this is fucking Hinds, son!
And ‘Viva Hinds (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)’ is an extremely apt name for their first album since 2020, when I was already so deeply Kool Aided as a dedicated fan that I stated for a fact that “they can legitimately now be considered one of the greatest indie rock bands in the world“. Which they could. Because they were.
OK, so I actually said “they can legitimately noe be considered one of the greatest indie rock bands in the world”, but I noticed that typo only four years later and have noe changed it.
Now changed it! For fuck’s…
However, the career highpoint of ‘The Prettiest Curse’ was also likely to be the the group’s final album. Soon after recording it, some made up liberal bullshit called the ‘coronavirus’ took away all our civil liberties and forced us to occasionally wear masks! It was literally 1984! And this was happening in literally literally 2020! Of course, even if COVID was all big conspiracy set up by both the Chinese and The Jews and the Chinese Jews and the Clintons – probably – in order to increase sales of horse worming tablets, still meant that Hinds were locked down, unable to tour the record and were each separated from each other. They lost their record label, their management and then, most decisively, half of the band in December 2022. Their bassist Ade Martín and their drummer Amber Grimbergen both announced that they had left the band to pursue different musical projects. And reader, I promise you that I really tried to find some gossip about the split – drug addiction, adultery, physical violence, sexual perversions, the usual good stuff – but maybe they’re just telling the truth? I know, “Boo! Tomato! Tomato! Tomato!“, right? COVID did a number on the band, they’d now released a trilogy of increasingly great albums, perhaps Ade and Amber just realised first that the time to draw a curtain on Hinds’ career was now.
No! VIVA HINDS!!!
With all dues respect, Hinds is bigger than Ade and Amber. It’s a force bigger than any mere mortals, it’s powers still not quite understood, its importance not yet explained in either Spanish or English. Hinds actually predates their rhythm section: the band was originally just BFFs Carlotta Cosials and Ana Perrote, and their earliest releases as Deer had both members just playing the rhythm instruments themselves as best they could. Fuck it, they evidently thought back in 2014, lets just make sure this bomb ass music gets out there. Only in Spanish. I’m not sure how you say “bomb ass” in Spanish. And again, once the duo started recording these songs they quickly realised that, “¡Mierda! ¡Tenemos que publicar esto!”. Considering the first song they recorded was Boom Boom Back!? Yeah, I get it…
And, holy fuck, ‘Viva Hinds (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)’ is an incredibly infectious lap of honour. Half an hour of impeccable reasons to thank God that Hinds are still with us. Whether it’s their best record will have to be officially decided when I add it to their Gold Star ranking, but it’s absolutely their most confident and celebratory. It’s also a clear musical evolution from their previous career high, with the song structures being looser and the influences being less mainstream. It’s incredibly vibrant, wonderfully produced and, despite the losses, may counterintuitively be the most complete sounding Hinds record yet.
The Album Title as AI Image
I feel uncomfortable…
THE SIMPSONS DID IT!
Necessary Evil 
4 thoughts on “#27 Hinds: Viva Hinds”