Haim 'Days Are Gone' album review

Californian sisters Este, Danielle and Alana Haim appear on their album cover sitting in deck chairs, wearing sunglasses. They’re taking it easy: something they do a lot of. Even their most bitterly romantic songs like "Better Off" and "Forever" are funkified to the point where the nights spent crying that inspired them are distant memories—or at least have been repressed by piña coladas.

This lightness of tone is a large part of the appeal of Days Are Gone, the band’s debut album. Haim’s rock-pop sound (think Tango In The Night-era Fleetwood Mac) is bright and breezy—just like the girls themselves, who’ve managed to keep laughing and joking through the exponentially building hype. They’re a band that actively wants to make a great pop record, without getting all Kanye West about it.

In this, they’ve been pretty damn successful. Days Are Gone is great. Not only does it contain a handful of the most radio-friendly songs of the last few years ("Forever," "Falling") it packs in some fantastically crunchy R&B bangers as well. "My Song 5" is the sort of in-your-face female empowerment anthem Beyoncé would go jogging to. More than that, the title track sounds like Des’ree’s "You Gotta Be" if it had been produced by Rick James—catchy as hell, in other words.

The two closing numbers, "Let Me Go" and "Running If You Call My Name," allow the darkness that otherwise lurks in the background of the album to come to the fore, and fail to hit the same pitch-perfect pop notes as a result. The other mild disappointment is that the record’s three producers (including Simian Mobile Disco’s James Ford) have largely gone for sparklingly clean edits of the songs, sacrificing the enjoyable roughness of earlier, more riotous takes. An early release of "The Wire," for example, sounded like it could have been cut in the ’70s, whereas the new, ultra-modern mix simply purloins Joan Jett’s glam-rock stomp.

Still, it's hard to celebrate the album’s listenability and also complain about it sounding too polished. The purists might think Haim have let the studio sessions rub the edges of their raw talent. The rest of us are just going to kick back in the sun with Days Are Gone and some piña coladas.

 Download Days Are Gone on iTunes    Download Days Are Gone on Amazon

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Watch the video for “The Wire”

Haim at Austin City Limits 2013

Haim at Made in America Festival 2013

Haim at Firefly Music Festival 2013

Haim at Governors Ball 2013