Leave Me Alone

After gaining international attention with a pair of playfully noisy singles under the name Deers, the Spanish garage pop combo now known as Hinds deliver their full-length debut. Guitarists Carlotta Cosials and Ana García Perrote formed the band as a duo back in 2011, though the fruits of their labors wouldn't be heard until the 2014 release of Demo, a two-song single that mixed scuzzy Burger Records-style lo-fi with a lackadaisical Mac DeMarco-inspired spirit. When U.K. publications like The Guardian and NME took notice, Deers' train left the station in a hurry. Bassist Ade Martín and drummer Amber Grimbergen quickly joined the band and a follow-up single arrived just a few months later. A legal threat from a similarly named group eventually prompted the change to Hinds (Spanish for a female deer) and all the pieces seemed to finally be in place. The 12 songs on Leave Me Alone don't deviate a whole lot from the promise of Hinds' early singles. The simple guitar leads and shared lead vocals of Cosials and Perrote are charming in their ramshackle way and their quirky back-and-forth interplay is the glue that holds it all together. Highlights like "Fat Calmed Kiddos" and "Warts" nicely meld Hinds' spunky attitude with sunny, uncomplicated grooves that are easy to get behind. They're at their best peddling a more pronounced pop angle on tracks like "Chili Town" and "Bamboo," the latter of which appeared in an even looser form on their self-released first single. Elsewhere, the scuzzier garage-forward efforts like "San Diego" and "Garden" feel a bit underwhelming in the increasingly crowded field of bands plying a similar trade and the slower pace at the album's back end causes it to drag a bit. As a whole, though, Hinds' moxie pulls them through on this largely enjoyable debut. ~ Timothy Monger