Hinds - I Don't Run

Rating:

‘I Don’t Run’ is bigger than Hinds have dared to tread before.

Hinds’ debut album ‘Leave Me Alone’ was a gloriously messy affair, a food fight of wondrous excitement, not much time and the want to do things their own way. Two years and one never-ending world tour later, the band have taken the very best of that forward to ‘I Don’t Run’.

Opener ‘The Club’ is moody and melancholic - for all of eight seconds before the bouncing energy of Hinds crashes the sombre party, light pouring in through the four person-sized holes in the wall, and transforms things. Restrained and flamboyant in equal measure, the song takes Hinds’ lo-fi approach and blows it wide open. This happens again and again throughout ‘I Don’t Run’ as the band finds new ways to shine and new methods of making you grin.

‘New For You’ sparkles, all gang vocals and self-belief while ‘Tester’ stomps about the place, furious and razor sharp. Across ‘I Don’t Run’ the band play with movement. Fearless at one hundred miles an hour, unafraid to slow things right down to a quiet whisper, Hinds have learnt to wield their beaming charm. From the assured wink of ‘Finally Floating’ that promises to know what you’re dreaming about to the sunburst new beginnings of ‘I Feel Cold But I Feel More’, the band surprise and delight at every turn.

More deliberate, more considered, ‘I Don’t Run’ is bigger than Hinds have dared to tread before, but thankfully, they still haven’t painted over the cracks. Hinds are giving it their everything, flaws and all. Rather than take away from the precision, that direct route from a fire in the gut to flaming truths sees the passion untethered and the emotion magnified. It teeters on the edge of chaos more than once, but this time out, Hinds are in total control. Ali Shutler