HAIM - Days are Gone

There are occasions in following music where it's difficult not to adhere to the hipsters' sense of bored eyerolling, and the fervent shoving of HAIM down our throats these past 12 months is one strong example of how easy it is to overlook good bands for being everywhere. I've put off listening to both this and their Forever EP earlier in the year until now, merely out of my interests lying elsewhere, so I'm probably one of the last people in the UK to discover them. Now a #1 album-selling powerhouse, the three L.A. sisters got this ball rolling with topping the BBC's Sound of... series earlier this year.

I suppose the major turning point though was signing to Roc Nation, and joining a roster of artists who're inevitably going to find some level of fame in the UK (Rita Ora, Rihanna, M.I.A.) The album, too, is produced largely by Ariel Rechtshaid - who's already pulled off some great albums in the past 12 months with Vampire Weekend, Charli XCX and Solange - as well as James Ford (Arctic Monkeys). With this clusterbomb of ingredients for success, the bar is set pretty high for HAIM to climb. (There will be fewer rhymes with HAIM(s) from now on).

The album's beginning is quite misleading if you're a fan of 'Falling's chillwave-EDM crossover sound (and who isn't, nowadays?): the rest of Days are Gone is a little less electronic. For the timebeing, though, enjoy the track's crashing series of hooks and brainworming lyrics, and the follow-up 'Forever's cute vocal melodies and general funky feel. Because by the time they get to 'The Wire', the music becomes largely more inspired by Queen (indeed, some of the electric guitar licks, combined with the slow rhythm, recall One Vision). Lyrically, the band are pretty forthright; on 'If I Could Change Your Mind' we're given a glimpse at a girl who regrets breaking up with an ex ("Memories take me back to all of the wildest times"), whilst back on 'Forever' she's anything but welcoming ("get out of my memory/ not tonight, I don't have the energy").

Much of the album's - and indeed the band's - praise has centred around the idea that the sisters supposedly sound a lot like Fleetwood Mac. I guess that's definitely true of 'Honey and I', a kind of Never Going Back Again revival given a stompier closer and a suddenly-Nicksy vocals, but elsewhere the comparison is a little empty. Much of it can be encapsulated in 'Don't Save Me', a track more closely-associated (at least in my head) with anything off of Tegan and Sara's Heartthrob LP earlier in the year. That's not a bad thing, of course; if the similarities were more prevalent, there'd be many queueing up to tear them apart for being derivative and the usual "not as good as the classics!!!" comments. Jessie Ware and her composer-friend Tom Hull lend a helping hand to the title track, a kind of light-disco pop piece that Este Haim sounds remarkably like Beth Ditto on.

The album has only one real dud for me and that's 'My Song 5' - a track that sounds like the least interesting parts of Sleigh Bells and The Black Keys smashed together into one slow, pace-halting mistake. By contrast, the breathless vocal delivery from Danielle on 'Go Slow' - backed by a ponderous new-wave crawler makes for a compelling listen. Even when they go for the all-out rock sound, they can do better: 'Let Me Go' - whilst not really imaginative - at least gives the impression that they are capable of pulling off a rock song were you to see them live. The album closes with 'Running If You Call My Name', and it's a boring closer indeed.

It's a pretty enjoyable record, but one of those which can br trimmed down quite selectively and easily to just the memorable songs. There isn't a particularly strong sense of completion about the record, and it won't go down as a classic - and it doesn't help that the sisters' voices are comparable to a great number of others around (Sharleen Spiteri, Stevie Nicks, KT Tunstall). But, as writers of pop-rock, an album with more than 5 good potential pop songs is more than you can hope for, really.

Rating: 7/10
Highlights: Falling; Honey & I; Days are Gone; The Wire; If I Could Change Your Mind
Avoid: My Song 5; Running if You Call My Name

Artwork Watch: That garden could do with a decent landscape artist.
For fans of: Tegan and Sara; 80s Fleetwood Mac; 10s The Gossip
Up next: Naughty Boy