Song You Need to Know: Hinds, ‘Riding Solo’

Loneliness has always been fertile territory when it comes to songwriting: Three Dog Night’s 1968 hit “One,” Eric Carmen/Céline Dion’s “All by Myself.” You know the drill. Madrid’s Hinds adds to that canon on Tuesday with “Riding Solo.”

“Feeling lonely is one of the most common human feelings, right?” the band said in a release. “Well, being a musician doesn’t really help. Your whole life is constantly moving and the only thing that remains is yourself. And dealing with yourself. Oh gosh, we all know how boring and angering that can be. ‘Riding Solo’ is about this. About us. Perpetually on the move, being everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Surrounded by strangers most time of the day, being nines hours’ time difference from our people and what we call home, living and dying por y para la música.”

The song features a languid video in which the band members lounge around a desolate landscape: They’re pulled across the sand on a pallet, lie in inner tubes and perch on a red sports car. A garage rock burner, the fuzzed out track reaches a crescendo with the sing-along chorus: “I’ve been ridin’ solo/Ridin’ solo.” Despite its lonely subject matter, it’s a light track that showcases a band that’s just… fun. No fancy music journalism terms needed.

“We don’t follow too many rules about music in general,” says Carlotta Cosials told Rolling Stone in 2018. “We know the vocals are pretty fucking loud. We know sometimes it can even sound disturbing. But we like that.”

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Hinds broke out in 2016 with their debut album, Leave Me Alone — following that up with 2018’s I Don’t Run. Rolling Stone’s Will Hermes called that album “a gem of indie-rock-revivalism, making faux-naif surf licks and Mo Tucker drum beats seem new all over again.” More music seems likely come 2020.

via:: Rolling Stone