“Easy” sounds like Hinds‘ typically breezy, leisurely garage pop, but at its core, it’s a pretty devastating number. Now there’s a clip that supports its truth, which is this: The feelings that drive the lyrics are rough. They’re perpetually pulsing pangs to the heart. An anvil that crushes self-worth. An emotional catastrophe.
Normally we see the Spanish quartet goofing off, being silly, and having fun in their videos, like with “Bamboo” or their double video with The Parrots. The only one that’s really differed from that fitting, totally fine mold is “Garden,” a quirky take on Jean Luc-Godard.
But “Easy” calls for a certain degree of austerity. There’s nothing carefree about the message, so the video shouldn’t be either. Here’s the official explanation from the band:
“‘easy’ is the worst moment in the universe during a relationship cause you love him but he doesn’t anymore. And being in bed with him is giving him nightmares. And you are the hangover in his mornings, and the homework during the day and the pain in his arse. so when you reach that point you can’t help but self destruct. there is just nothing you can do, it’s too late to take it easy.”
It certainly helps that Hinds laid it all out that way, but the video itself is enough to underscore its utter calamity. Shots of the players performing are shadowy and close up; there are black smears around everyone’s eyes, the kind makeup turns into after intense crying. Things begin to spin — a loss of control. It’s unsettling.
Suddenly, their mouths are covered with food. Carlotta Cosials’ spaghetti slurp could be funny, but not in this context. Is it a metaphor for self-disgust? When you find yourself unloved after you were, and you’re still very much in love, it can be angering. Sometimes, you absorb that anger. You turn inward. You hate yourself for not being enough.
It’s a dark place Hinds have gone to, but it’s a universal one. When Amber Grimbergen is smoking while playing, she winces. If you’ve ever been where they have, that look alone can flood you with old memories that feel newly ruinous. You’ll wince too.
Whether you’re remembering it or you’re in it now, or you’re just dying inside vicariously through Hinds, there’s hope. The brightening flash toward the end is not-so-subtly the light, promise. They’re powdered white at the end, but it may as well be ash. They’ve burned an effigy for a love lost, and they’re still standing.