“We really dug deep for this one,” said Alana “There are a lot of things that we’ve never really spoken about on record before.” Just as sonically these are songs unlike anything HAIM have attempted before, they peel back to new emotional layers. It’s the kind of album where you’ll have a new favourite track after each listen. “So I feel like every time we get the drums right on a song, that’s when we know we’re on the right path.”Īt first, this multiplicity and constant genre-shifting over a sprawl of 17 tracks can seem overwhelming and even scattershot, but it just means there’s more to sink your teeth into over multiple spins. “We all started as drummers,” explained Este. III - or WIMPIII for short - the trio tell triple j they listened to everything from Bonnie Raitt’s late ‘80s blockbuster Nick Of Time to The Love Below, the influential solo album of OutKast’s André 3000 “One of my all-time favourite albums,” Danielle confessed to Ebony & Bryce on triple j BreakfastĪnother unlikely inspiration came from the “very roomy” drum sounds of Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Blood Sugar Sex Magik. You can probably chalk up some of this expanded eclecticism to the wide-ranging tastes of the Haim siblings. This genre-hopping is indicative of how HAIM are moving beyond their retro-leaning instincts into something more contemporary, but it’s still clearly the music of the same three women we know and love. It’s an ‘80s leaning funk-rock wig-out built around a sampled scream, hollowed out drum pads, and an electric finger-tapping guitar solo - it really shouldn’t work, but it just does. On paper, ‘All That Ever Mattered’ seems too wild. There’s still classic HAIM bangers - ‘Don’t Wanna’ began life in sessions for Something To Tell You and ‘FUBT’ goes back to the blueprint of ‘What if Shania Twain wrote a soft rock ballad?’ - but those more familiar anchoring moments aren’t as entertaining as the switch-ups.
Warbling sax bookends the album, on opener ‘Los Angeles’ and closer ‘Summer Girl’, while brass supports the loose swagger of ‘I’ve Been Down’. ‘Another Try’ flirts with a reggae shuffle and horns, which are a recurring feature.
The sunny ‘Up From A Dream’ chugs along on down-tuned glam rock guitar. ‘I Know Alone’ finds Danielle Haim getting raw about isolation over a dusty UK garage beat. The lyrics are more personal, the production is a little looser and more varied, and most significantly, they’re unafraid to experiment with the core sound that’s served them so well for a decade. It’s recognisably HAIM, but at nearly every level the trio have pushed themselves towards something new, and it pretty much all works.
But despite doing everything right, it didn’t generate the same buzz because it felt like more of the same. Their 2013 debut album Days Are Gone was widely celebrated as one of the year’s best, a shiny set proving that both in song and in person, the sisters had charisma to spare.įour years later, Something To Tell You was a solid set that further fused indie rock sensibilities with the radio-friendly pop and RnB the girls had grown up on. When siblings Danielle, Este, and Alana Haim first emerged outta Los Angeles in the early 2010s, they had instant star appeal. The sisters blow up their genre boundaries and deliver their most direct and multi-dimensional listen yet.
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