The Haim sisters have been hovering in the periphery of the music industry for their whole lives. From a family band during their years growing up in California to early tours behind acts like Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros and Ke$ha, Este, Danielle and Alana Haim’s success was a long time in the making. The three subtly took the summer by storm, which not so subtly included a successful appearance at Britain’s legendary Glastonbury festival.
After all of this hype, it’s hard to believe they are just now releasing their debut album Days Are Gone.
The album, out Sept. 30, feels like a teenage girl’s coming-of-age set into sound. It bleeds ballads of ruined love, lost dreams and learning to move on set to a new beat.
The album features their most well-known song, “The Wire,” which was released in late July and reached no. 16 on the UK charts. It’s one of the more catchy tracks on the album and stands out as a great display of the band’s greatest strength—revamping the quintessential pop song. Their vocal style gives a nod to the ethereal flavor of the ’70s and ’80s, while their composition relies on a combination of gentle riffs, a strong bass and solid drum beat. “Forever” and “Don’t Save Me” both have a similar sound. However, the band’s willingness to experiment shows on a track like “My Song 5.” The song successfully amps up their normal style with a nod to the increasingly popular synthesizers prominent in today’s hip-hop and rap.
Many might criticize the band for borrowing too much from other acts or relying too much on the typical pop comfort zone of writing about heartbreak, but therein lies the beauty of the album HAIM have created. It takes the influence and pop tradition of the past thirty or so years—the music Este, Danielle and Alana grew up listening to, the music many of us grew up listening to—and throws it onto a single album. It’s a new pop sound made of old sounds, and it sounds pretty damn good.
