Haim
Days Are Gone
Sony/Columbia Records – September 30th 2013
By Adam Downer (@getdowner)
Find it at: iTunes | Insound | HMV Digital
7.5
Haim could not have debuted at a better time. In a year where “Women In Pop Music” has arguably never been a more culturally important issue and nods to ’80s pop rock are as musically ubiquitous as bass drops, a trio of sisters who quote Fleetwood Mac with an almost clinical effectiveness are about as zeitgeist-y as you can get. The hype has been as inevitable as it’s been enthusiastic, but Days Are Gone more than lives up to it. It’s a bubbly, sultry slice of chorus porn that proves impossible to hate. There’s much to like about the album, but perhaps what’s most impressive is its consistency. It never lets up, dealing almost exclusively in up-tempo, eminently-listenable jams.
“Falling” lays the template out well: the song grows out of a bass heartbeat into a full-fledged pop tune, complete with a clap-baiting pre-chorus and the title lyric echoing throughout the song. It’s a formula Haim rarely deviate from, but it’s so winning that the record never feels repetitive. Highlights exclusively populate Days Are Gone’s phenomenal A-side, but aside from current hits “The Wire” and “Forever”, “If I Could Change Your Mind” propels like a (thankfully) more subtle M83’s “Reunion” and proves a formidable anchor. While some lyrical vapidity pushes the record into slight territory and the latter half features some tracks that don’t stand up to the stunners in the first, these are minor issues that are hardly worth worrying about. Days Are Gone is too fun to think of it as anything less than a massively impressive first work from a buzz band with the chops to stay around for the long haul.
Listen: “If I Could Change Your Mind”, “Falling”, “Days Are Gone” || Watch: “The Wire”