Haim
Days Are Gone
Reviewed By: Nate Adams
About two thirds the way through Haim’s debut album, Days Are Gone, something kind of nuts happens. The trio of sisters abandon their classically-constructed pop sound in favor of a bass so low it’s almost comical and a straightforward attempt to create a song that Beyonce might make. This lone departure from form (“My Song 5”), unlike anything else on the record, acts in the same way the crowing bird does in Citizen Kane; to wake the listener up, remind them an album is happening.
A lot has been made of Haim’s classic rock past (raised as part of a family cover band that replayed the hits of pop-rock’s golden age) and their lifetimes as performers (including a brief stint as a Disney-pop act in the mid 2000s). Days Are Gone reflects their near-constant music performance, resulting in an album that is appealingly, impossibly tight. There are no loose ends with Haim. They should time trains to this album.
The group’s stabbing staccato guitar lines and its embrace of intricate internal vocals, its two best moves, are employed over and over again to make great pop songs that recall Michael Jackson and Hall and Oates as much as Jackson Browne and Fleetwood Mac (try and find one review that doesn’t mention THAT band). The album’s best tracks (“The Wire,” “Don’t Save Me,” “Honey & I”) are playful and alive: they sound like someone using old tools to make something fresh. In a pop landscape that has paired down complex vocal deliveries, what Haim does on tracks like “If I Could Change Your Mind” stands out.
Detractors have saddled Haim the “soft-rock” tag, a distinction the album only half-heartedly combats. After a very strong start (a start, it must be mentioned, that contains most of the songs the band has already released and made their buzz on), back half of Days Are Gone slows down significantly, with only “My Song 5” to spark a reaction. Tracks like “Go Slow” and “Let Me Go” suggest that contemporary adult Top 40 future could be just as likely as a buzzed-about youth powerhouse for the band. Still, when Haim uses their airtight pop sensibility to channel the easy-listening R&B of the past, the results more than justify the band’s buzz.
Rating: Listenable
