Music Review: HAIM return with a superb and salty breakup album
'I Quit,' the fourth full-length album from the trio, is a breakup collection that never gets too weepy. You can dance to a lot of it. Even the song 'Cry,' which name-checks the seven stages of grief, is an upbeat bop.
Six years after the trio released their jazzy, Lou Reed-y single 'Summer Girl,' the mood has somewhat soured this summer. Across 15 tracks, the songs are about fresh splits, old wounds and newfound independence.
'Now I'm gone/Quick as a gunshot/Born to run/Can't be held up,' go the lyrics for the opening track 'Gone,' which samples from George Michael's anthem of liberty 'Freedom! '90.'
Sisters Este, Danielle and Alana Haim found themselves all single for the first time in a long time while making the album, looking back with equal parts venom and guilt. 'You know I'm trying to change/'Cause I know I'm not innocent,' goes 'Love You Right.'
'The Farm' has a rootsy twang, 'Down to be Wrong' has a Sheryl Crow vibe and 'Take Me Back' has a Go-Go's feel. 'Love You Right' is pure Fleetwood Mac harmonies, even making reference to a chain. 'Spinning' is a slice of house bliss with overlapping harmonies, easily the most danceable Haim song since 'I Want You Back.' The wistful, warm 'Million Years' leans into electronica.
The bluesy 'Blood on the Street' has more vitriol but ends with freedom: 'Now the sun's up, I'm out, and that's that.' And 'Relationships' is a standout on a standout album, with Danielle Haim's falsetto exploring the agony of romantic ties and her sister's bass thumping.
But the best song has to be 'Everybody's Trying to Figure Me Out,' in which each Haim shines as tempos change and the song morphs from folk to indie rock to blissed-out '70s, with the final mantra: 'You think you're gonna die/But you're not gonna die.'
The album is co-produced by Danielle Haim and HAIM's frequent collaborator Rostam Batmanglij of Vampire Weekend. The trio's usual producer, Ariel Rechtshaid, split with Danielle Haim, which may account for the new energy.
The album closer, 'Now It's Time,' interpolates U2's industrial-pop song 'Numb,' adds cool drum rhythms and an Alanis Morissette-like strut, ending with an exhilarating jam session. 'It's time/To let go,' says the lyrics. Not to this album.
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After much speculation, Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham announce Buckingham Nicks reissue
NEW YORK (AP) — They're not going their own way anymore. After much speculation, Fleetwood Mac's Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham announced Wednesday the reissue of 'Buckingham Nicks,' more than 50 years after the release of their only full-length album as a duo. Originally released in 1973, 'Buckingham Nicks' is not currently available on streaming platforms. According to Discogs, the album was last issued on vinyl on the Polydor label in the U.S. in 1981. The remastered version arrives Sept. 19 via Rhino Records' high-fidelity series and was sourced from the original analog master tapes. The album will also receive a CD and digital release for the first time, and the opening track, 'Crying in the Night,' was available to stream Wednesday. Buckingham and Nicks were in their early to mid-20s during the making of their album. 'It was a very natural thing, from the beginning,' Nicks says in the re-release's liner notes, written by music journalist David Fricke. Despite their relative inexperience, 'it stands up in a way you would hope it would, by these two kids who were pretty young to be doing that work,' Buckingham says, according to the announcement release. The reissue announcement was foreshadowed by cryptic Instagram posts last week. Both Nicks and Buckingham shared handwritten lyrics to their official social media accounts. 'And if you go forward…' Nicks posted, a line from their song 'Frozen Love,' which appears on 'Buckingham Nicks.' 'I'll meet you there,' Buckingham shared, completing the lyric. In 2011, Buckingham told Uncut that he and Nicks had 'every intention of putting that album back out and possibly even doing something along with it, but I can't put any specifics on that.' In 2013, on the album's 40th anniversary, Fleetwood Mac released 'Extended Play,' their first new studio material since 2003's 'Say You Will.' The four-track collection featured a song titled 'Without You,' which had been originally slated for 'Buckingham Nicks.' The reissued version of 'Buckingham Nicks' features the same album cover as the original, despite Nicks' public dissatisfaction with the photograph, telling classic rock magazine MOJO that she 'felt like a rat in a trap' during the shoot. 'I'm actually quite prudish. So when they suggested they shoot Lindsey and I nude I could not have been more terrified if you'd asked me to jump off a speeding train,' Nicks told MOJO in 2013. 'Lindsey was like, 'Oh, come on — this is art. Don't be a child!' I thought, 'Who are you? Don't you know me?'' 'Buckingham Nicks' was released one year before they joined Fleetwood Mac, and was met with little commercial success. But it did attract the attention of Mick Fleetwood, who invited Buckingham to join Fleetwood Mac. Buckingham in turn insisted Nicks come, too. The two, then a couple, became the central faces, voices and songwriters of the group for the four decades that followed. The pair's tumultuous relationship appeared across the band's discography: She wrote 'Dreams' about him. He wrote 'Go Your Own Way' about her. Infamously, they broke up while writing the 1977 hit album 'Rumours.' Footage of Nicks staring down Buckingham 20 years later during a performance of 'Silver Springs' routinely goes viral ('You'll never get away from the sound of the woman that loves you,' Nicks and Buckingham sing in unison, at one point, holding each other's gaze.) Buckingham left the band in 1987, returning in 1996. The last time the band reunited, however, for a 2018-2019 tour, the rest of the members kicked Buckingham out, and as a result, he sued them. He claimed he was told five days after the group appeared at Radio City Music Hall that the band would tour without him. He says he would have been paid at least $12 million for his share of the proceeds. Later that year, Buckingham said they had settled the lawsuit. Both Buckingham and Nicks have also released reams of solo music. Some fans had theorized that Nicks and Buckingham were teasing a Fleetwood Mac reunion, which would have been the first since the death of vocalist, songwriter and keyboard player Christine McVie in 2022. Last year, Nicks told MOJO that without McVie, 'there is no chance of putting Fleetwood Mac back together in any way.' This story has been updated to correct reporting that 'Buckingham Nicks' has never been reissued. The album was last issued on vinyl on the Polydor label in the U.S. in 1981.
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Is Fleetwood Mac Reunion on Cards? Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham Drop Major Hints
Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham might just be planning a grand comeback. The duo dropped clues about a Fleetwood Mac reunion. According to media reports, the rock band members have not been on good terms since the guitarist, Buckingham, was left out of the group in 2018. Six years later, the pair matched their social media content, hinting at a reconciliation among the members. In addition to Nicks and Buckingham, Fleetwood Mac also includes Christine McVie, the accordionist; Mick Fleetwood, the drummer; John McVie, the bass guitarist; and Peter Green, the guitarist. Will Fleetwood Mac have a reunion? On Thursday, Stevie Nicks shared a handwritten line from the 1973 Buckingham Nicks song, Frozen Love, on his Instagram that read, 'And if you go forward…' Sometime later, Lindsey Buckingham shared a similar line, 'I'll meet you there." That is not all; the drummer of the band, Mick Fleetwood, also released a video of himself listening to the track, which was also shared on the group's Instagram page. In the caption he wrote, "Magic then, magic now." Previously, in conversation with US Weekly, the drummer revealed that he wished for Nicks and Buckingham to put their differences aside. He said, "I always have a fantasy that [Stevie] and Lindsay would pal up a bit more and just say everything's OK for them both. But we've had such an incredible career." Further speaking up about performing with the band, Fleetwood claimed, "I miss playing as much as we used to. I'm hoping next year, one way or another, some band somewhere will say, come and play with drums or something.' He added, "So I always love to do whatever I can do working on an album that next year we may tour with it. I don't know, [but] not Fleetwood Mac." While none of the band members have yet confirmed a reunion, the fans are hoping to see all of them together.
