Haim – The Wire
SoundCloud
If you’ve poked your head anywhere remotely near the indie music scene in the last 12 months, chances are you’ve caught an earful of Haim. If somehow you’ve managed to avoid the hybrid stylings of these three sisters, then you’re greatly missing out.
It doesn’t take a musical aficionado or historical scholar of the medium to pick out who’s helped inspire the sound that is Haim. On their debut offering, Este, Alana and Danielle wear their radio-friendly pop/rock influences proudly on their sleeves. Whether it be the hip-swinging, Stevie Nicks-like swagger of “The Wire”, the 80′s cassette-tape nostalgia of “If I Could Change Your Mind,” or the 90′s dance music of the album’s title track, Haim’s first effort sounds like a familiar jukebox of recognizable sounds. Having said that, it’s not as if the girls are simply copying and pasting here. Days Are Gone might boast bold and recognizable elements, but they’re built into an infrastructure that the siblings have forged themselves. Granted, it’s one that’s quite a ways away from reaching full maturity, but it most definitely has its foundations built on solid ground.
Although each member brings something unique to the table, Haim comes into their own as a complete unit. There’s an undeniable chemistry within the group, and when they work together in tandem you see sparks fly. With killer hooks and an elastic, dexterous approach to melodies, it’s clear that they have the right tools for the job. Combine this with a robust pool of inspiration, a radiating sense of the joy they gain from their work, and the patience to let songs breathe, and you have all the makings of a truly fantastic family affair.
Days Are Gone does, however, have a few chips of inconsistency to its paintwork here and there. For instance, despite pulling away in the third act, “Honey and I”, for all it’s sweetness, has a streak of repetition which dilutes its melody somewhat. If you can look past this (and trust me in the grand scheme of things you can quite easily), then you’ll find that Days Are Gone has a metric ton of positives to offer, as does the band behind the wheel. For the most part, this album proves that sometimes people really can live up the hype. More importantly, it shows Haim to be a truly exciting group with plenty of potential and a real ability to excel.
