Hinds' debut album, Leave Me Alone, was a loose and fun reboot of garage rock, sung and played by four exuberant women from Spain.

As good as it was, there seemed to be something missing.

Something like a little more focus or some punch; anything to boost their sound from a nice diversion to the main course.

On their second album, I Don't Run, the band found exactly what they needed and upgraded accordingly.

Producing the album themselves with the help of Strokes collaborator Gordon Raphael, they strip away the fuzz, tighten up the looseness, and sharpen the hooks to a dangerous point.

There's precious little fooling around here.

Song after song strikes with surgical precision as the guitars jangle simply, the bass rumbles, and the drums anchor it with a newfound strength.

Over the top are the chiming, sneaky good guitar leads cooked up and served hot by Ana Perrote and Carlotta Cosials.

The pair also do magical things vocally on the album; trading lines back and forth, singing together in snappy harmonies, and basically being about as charming as a singer has the right to be.

Rollicking tracks like "Echoing My Name" and "Soberland" are packed with tooth-destroying sweetness, boozy rockers like "New for You" and "Rookie" show off their hard-to-contain sassiness, they aren't afraid to get tender on a couple of ballads (the pocket girl group classic "I Feel Cold But I Feel More," "Linda"), and occasionally they run the vocals through overdriven mikes and come up with a sound not too unlike the early Strokes, only without the sometimes toxic attitude.

"The Club" and "Finally Floating" are shining examples of the latter and they both show the band's rapid growth and provide a glimpse of how good they still might be.

I Don't Run is diamond sharp and minus any fat -- it cuts through the bloated, reverb-encrusted albums that surround it like freshly honed knives.

This is the album where Hinds become a great band.

They've got the songs, they've got the attitude, and they've got the sound; all their potential has been realized and it's a joy to experience.