Haim: I Quit review – Ferociously catchy, satisfyingly grudge-bearing
Artist
:
Haim
Label
:
Polydor
Rock music arrives at the quarter mark of the 21st century in a strange place. To the extent that anything interesting is happening, it is largely in the margins.
Out in the daylight this is the era of the big beasts of antiquity: Oasis on the comeback trail, the middle-aged happy chappies Coldplay making it their mission to sprinkle the world in figurative and literal confetti, U2 trying to work out what to do next. Significantly, the most streamed band on Spotify are Imagine Dragons, a pop act with a passing familiarity with guitars.
Thank goodness, then, for Haim. There is something hugely cheering about the return of these three sisters from the San Fernando Valley, in southern California, whose bittersweet soft rock is proof that, between the indie underground and the stadium cash grab, there is still a third way.
Since their debut, a decade ago, they have championed such delightfully old-fashioned values as sun-kissed guitar anthems fuelled by heartache, melancholy and zinging melodies that insist on being hummed aloud.
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They've also had to overcome being dismissed as pop fodder early in their careers. Still, in their teens they resisted attempts to turn them into a chart group dancing to the tune of behind-the-scenes producers and composers.
'We were scouted as teenagers, and it was kind of a horror story,'
Este
, the eldest of the sisters, told Irish journalists in 2014. 'It was terrible; we were turned off the business for a while. The songs were already written – they only wanted us to play. That was an instructive experience. Immediately we were, like, 'From now on we will write all our own stuff.'' To paraphrase their musical heroes Fleetwood Mac, they were determined to go their own way.
That journey moves up to the next level on their ferociously catchy and satisfyingly grudge-bearing fourth album, I Quit. Showcasing the wonderfully vituperative songwriting of
Danielle Haim
, the middle sister – she's had her heart broken, and you're going to hear all about it – it makes the bold statement that rock music can be catchy and cathartic without pandering to the lowest common denominator.
With Danielle producing alongside the former Vampire Weekend member Rostam Batmanglij, I Quit exits the traps at speed. All Over Me is a steamy chunk of acoustic funk whose narrator dreams of healing their broken heart with a quick hook-up. Take Me Back, meanwhile, is chiming folk pop that bubbles with retro goodness, recalling at moments Joni Mitchell and REM.
The album's title is a reference to the band's mission statement of not being caught in a rut. The goal is 'quitting something that isn't working for us any more', according to
Alana Haim
(who is best known outside the band for starring in Paul Thomas Anderson's
Liquorice Pizza
).
Nor is it entirely a Danielle show. Este takes lead vocals on Cry, the most country-oriented moment on the epic 15-track run time. ('Seven stages of grief and I don't know which I'm on,' she croons in a lyric that draws from the big book of country-rock cliches.)
A youthful vivacity runs through the project – a consequence, they have revealed, of the three sisters all being single for the first time since high school. 'I think it really brought up this nostalgic [feeling] for the last time we were single, when I was, like, 14, 15, 16,' Alana told BBC Radio. 'It's just been amazing to kind of, like, go back and relive those times [and] get back into it.'
There is little in the way of surprises – aside from one curveball at the end, when Now It's Time samples the U2 song Numb, a highlight from the days when Bono and friends were more interested in pushing themselves sonically than putting bums on seats. It is a haunting reminder of the more experimental band U2 might have been and a winning conclusion to a charming LP.
Haim could never be accused of blazing originality: this is a great album forged from the DNA of other great albums. But it is catchy, brash and bittersweet – and refuses to take prisoners. With so much going on, I Quit is an urgent call to the world not to give up on rock quite yet.
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