HAIM – Days Are Gone

HAIM is a family project that neatly avoids the dysfunctional. It is composed of three sisters in their 20s who are not only fittingly pop-perfect good-looking and engagingly entertaining in interviews, but who bring with them a refreshingly honest take on inspirations from decades gone by. 

As a debut album, Days Are Gone lives up to the rising hype forged by their four well-received singles, while still offering something fresh and unexpected. Damped guitar strings merge upliftingly with grimy synth and throbbing, electronic bass-lines, creating melodies that make one itch to sing along. This album has power down to a fine art, even in The Wire – an otherwise steadily throbbing track that maintains the reverberating boom characteristic of Days Are Gone.  

Despite these disarmingly honest frills blasting a beat of nostalgia through the fresh, uncomplicated melodies, HAIM successfully create a whole new niche all to themselves. My Song 5 is a great example of this new wave of reminiscence, beautifully capturing a retro turn-of-the-century mood while spiking it into the modern day with sharply-timed electronics. 

The songwriting on the album is by no means built to be looked at in great detail, but rather serves as a vocal hook to accentuate the melodies that certainly hit the spot. There are, however, some great turns of phrase, mostly to be found within the obsessively catchy choruses. The power of the vocals is found in the truly individual inflections carried with aplomb throughout, sounding as tightly formed and glossily finished as one may expect from a group who have focused most of their lives on making music. 

Francesca Laidlaw

Days Are Gone was released on 27^th September 2013. For further information or to order the album visit Haim’s website here.  

Watch the video for Forever here: