HAIM DAYS ARE GONE REVIEW MAC

** Forever, listed as an EP here, is actually a single. *Does that mean that Savages or Chvrches are The Big Thing? Or The Previous Big Thing? After this record, you’ll be left with the strange feeling of wondering why’re you’re still so hungry. Days Are Gone will make your mouth water with its glossy sheen and candy-like veneer, but it won’t leave you full. However flimsy this debut might be, I’m not giving up the ghost on Haim being a massive success – I think that they have the charisma, the talent, and the resources to make a great record. Their debut, Days Are Gone doesn’t bring to life the possibilities that are promised by this band’s ingredients or their EP. Haim works brilliantly on paper, and as an idea, they’re incredibly exciting. Once you look under the hood of this shiny Corvette, you’ll find that these are parts borrowed from a Honda Civic. In theory, that could be a boon for the band – changing up a genre just enough yet remaining faithful to their roots – but it just comes across as slightly stale. Haim is much the same, so while some of the sounds particular to Days Are Gone sound new, they very much carry an old, traditional foundation. They had basic melodies and basic harmonies (and they knocked these things out of the park).

HAIM DAYS ARE GONE REVIEW MAC

Fleetwood Mac is often used as a point of comparison for Haim and the music of Days Are Gone, and the similarities go beyond the Knicks-esque vocals and harmonies Fleetwood Mac was a pretty safe, standard band. Haim lay down plenty of style to cover up the conventional melodies and tropes that other (usually frowned-upon) bands employ. “The Wire” does sound eerily like Twain’s pseudo-feminisit power anthem “Man, I Feel Like a Woman”.

Portishead’s Geoff Barrow said about the band: “Haim sound like Shania Twain … When did that become a good thing?” And he’s right. So if you were early to board the Haim Train ™, Days Are Gone will offer up enough new material to please if you’re new to the band, well, now there’s one less EP** you have to listen to.

Fans of the band will instantly recognize two of the three songs that appeared on Forever - “Forever” and “Go Slow” show up on the album with only slight alterations to the production. One song they’re shelling out melodramatic synthpop like Au Revoir Simone or Chvrches (“Days Are Gone”), others have them laying down dark, urbanite rhythms (“My Song 5”), some with 90’s influenced R&B (“Falling”), and guitar-centric pop (“Let Me Go”). The Haim sisters resist being pigeonholed in any particular genre because they frequently shift between styles between songs. So part of why Haim is receiving all of this buzz is because of who they are on paper the other part is because of how they sound on record. And what’s there not to be buzzed about? Three young sisters, making music that sounds like an updated Fleetwood Mac, equipped with synthesizers, guitars, and three-part harmonies? Sign me up! Their debut full-length record, Days Are Gone carries high expectations for a band that’s so likeable and promising that some have heralded them as The Next Big Thing* Their EP, Forever, is only three tracks long (I’m not counting that remixed track, are you?), but it was enough to create considerable buzz. In 2012, Haim (or HAIM, as it is sometimes stylized) released an EP, because well, if you’re gonna tour with Mumford & Sons, you better bring something to sell. Haim sounds great without having to write great songs.

Haim days are gone review