Latest news with #DanielleHaim
Vogue
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Vogue
Haim Isn't Answering to Anyone
Danielle Haim is in the middle of explaining her songwriting process when she's interrupted by a call on her hotel phone. 'One second,' she says. Luckily, her siblings Alana and Este, who round out the band Haim, are there to fill the void, performing a rapid-fire riff—a sister act, if you will. 'You have a caller! Who is it?' Alana asks. 'Is it mom?' Este wonders. 'It's probably mom,' Alana concludes. Photo: Heidi Stanton The trio have always been close, but their synchronicity has never been more apparent than on their fourth studio album, I Quit, out today. On its face, the record—co-produced by Danielle and Rostam Batmanglij, formerly of Vampire Weekend—is a breakup album, largely inspired by Danielle's split from Ariel Rechtshaid, who produced the band's previous three records. Over its 15 tracks, the record travels from the lusty beginnings of a romance to the grief of its dissolution and the catharsis of finding closure. But present throughout is a sense of ecstasy: in album opener 'Gone'—with its sample from George Michael's 'Freedom! '90'—and the jubilant, Alana-led 'Spinning,' all the way through to the percussive closer, 'Now It's Time.' 'I wish I could tell you there was some huge blowup with my past relationship. The real story is just two people that lost each other,' Danielle says. 'There's a lot of love there. I think we made really great music with my ex, and he's such a genius producer, but I think I really found so much strength in producing this with Rostam. I really feel like it's our best work.'
UPI
a day ago
- Entertainment
- UPI
Listen: Haim releases 'I Quit,' first studio album in five years
1 of 4 | Este Haim, Alana Haim and Danielle Haim released "I Quit," Haim's first studio album in five years. File Photo by Chris Chew/UPI | License Photo June 20 (UPI) -- Haim released I Quit, their first studio album in five years, and sat down with Kesha to explain the process behind the new record. The album marks the sisters' first new album release since Women in Music Pt. III in 2020. The sisters -- Este, Danielle and Alana -- sat down with longtime friend Kesha to discuss their new album in an episode of Spotify's Countdown To. "We've always been obsessed with how people can mix sounds and genres," Danielle Haim said in a clip released to Instagram. "That's just always been our bag." The sisters also shared how the album's title, I Quit, is a reference to a scene in the film That Thing You Do when Jimmy (Johnathon Schaech) sings those words into a microphone in the studio. Haim also released the official audio Friday for the song "Million Years" on YouTube. I Quit is out Friday in record stores and on streaming platforms.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Haim's new album gives vivid shape to a hard-to-define phase
Haim's 'I Quit' is not quite a breakup album and not quite a moving-on album; rather, the fourth LP by this beloved Los Angeles sister trio lands somewhere between those tried-and-true schemes: Its title inspired, the Haims have said, by a third-act mic drop in the cult-fave 1996 movie 'That Thing You Do!,' 'I Quit' is about looking back from the middle distance on a relationship that didn't work and assessing what you learned (and what you didn't) from the experience. 'Can I have your attention, please, for the last time before I leave?' Danielle Haim sings over a trembling acoustic guitar riff to open the album with 'Gone.' Then: 'On second thought, I changed my mind.' In 'All Over Me,' she's exulting in the erotic thrill of a new situationship — 'Take off your clothes / Unlock your door / 'Cause when I come over / You're gonna get some' — while warning the guy not to get out over his skis as any kind of partner. Este Haim takes over lead vocals for 'Cry,' in which she's unsure of her place in the seven stages of grief: 'I'm past the anger, past the rage, but the hurt ain't gone.' How to musicalize such a state of transition? On 'I Quit,' which Danielle co-produced with Rostam Batmanglij, the sisters do it with songs that go in multiple directions at once, as in 'Relationships,' which sounds like 'Funky Divas' meets 'Tango in the Night,' and 'Everybody's Trying to Figure Me Out,' a deconstructed blues strut that bursts into psych-pop color in the chorus. They do it by trying new things, as in the shoegazing 'Lucky Stars' and 'Spinning,' which has Alana Haim cooing breathily over a shuffling disco beat. (In some ways, 'I Quit' feels closely aligned with the newly sexed-up 'Sable, Fable' by Bon Iver, whose Justin Vernon was involved in a couple of songs on this album.) The Haims also do it, of course, by revisiting familiar comforts: 'Gone' samples George Michael's 'Freedom! '90'; 'Down to Be Wrong' evokes the blistered euphoria of peak Sheryl Crow; 'Now It's Time,' for some goofy reason, borrows the industrial-funk groove from U2's 'Numb.' Read more: How Jensen McRae became L.A.'s next great songwriter Nostalgia figures into the lyrics too, but it's all very sharply drawn, as in 'Take Me Back,' a caffeinated folk-rock shimmy where Danielle is thinking about the people she used to know in the Valley — 'David only wants to do what David wants / Had a bald spot, now it's a parking lot' — and how much easier things were when she'd cruise Kling Street 'looking for a place to park in an empty parking lot just so you can feel me up.' (Great guitar solo in this one.) In 'Down to Be Wrong,' she looks out from her window seat on a flight to somewhere and sees 'the street where we used to sleep' — a reference, one presumes, to her ex Ariel Rechtshaid, who helped produce Haim's first three albums and whose presence looms here like a phantom. Case in point: ''We want to see you smiling,' said my mother on the hill,' Danielle sings in the loping country ballad 'The Farm,' 'But the distance keeps widening between what I let myself say and what I feel.' Oof. Yet on an album about choosing who to leave behind and who to collide with for the first time, 'The Farm's" emotional climax comes in a touching verse where one of Danielle's sisters tells her she's welcome to crash 'if you need a place to calm down till you get back on your feet.' The upheaval won't last; family is forever. Get notified when the biggest stories in Hollywood, culture and entertainment go live. Sign up for L.A. Times entertainment alerts. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Sister act Haim keep the spirit of Brian Wilson alive with an album of sunny California pop, writes Adrian Thrills
HAIM: I Quit (Polydor) Verdict: Sun-kissed harmonies Verdict: Electrifying and theatrical The death last week of Brian Wilson was a timely reminder of the enduring brilliance of classic Californian pop. From Wilson's Beach Boys to The Byrds and the Eagles, the harmony-soaked sounds of America's West Coast remain the perfect soundtrack for summer. The latest exponents of brightly-hued Californian pop are the three Haim sisters, whose songwriting is an inspired mixture of tradition and modernity. Haim's fourth album, I Quit, is ostensibly a break-up record, but even when Danielle, Este and Alana sing about heartache, they find it hard to stop the sun from breaking through. 'I hear a voice in my head, and it keeps asking: why am I in this relationship?,' sings Danielle on Relationships, a track that blends close-knit harmonies with funky drums. Danielle, who is Haim's frontwoman, split up with Ariel Rechtshaid, the band's former producer, in 2022, and she opens up further on Down To Be Wrong: 'I crushed my whole heart, trying to fit my soul into your arms.' But the album, with its melodic vocals, shimmering guitars and shuffling grooves, is as much a celebration of single life and the empowering sense of freedom that comes with it, as it is a lament for lost love. The risqué All Over Me portrays Danielle as a woman taking control. 'Take off your clothes, unlock your door, 'cause when I come over, you're gonna get some,' she sings. The trio, all in their 30s, also seek refuge from the complications of adult life by harking back to simpler, if still bittersweet, times. Take Me Back is an acoustic account of nightmarish teenage dates triggered by a drive past their childhood home in the San Fernando Valley. Million Years is similarly nostalgic. 'Sometimes I sit around and think about the times we used to run around the city with nothing much to do,' sings Danielle. Family ties offer another source of strength. Bassist and eldest sister Este handles lead vocals on Cry, and Danielle seeks solace from one of her siblings on The Farm, a folky track in the tradition of the Laurel Canyon singer-songwriter scene of the 1970s. 'My sister said it's alright,' she sings. 'You can stay with me if you need a place to calm down, 'til you get back on your feet.' Despite Haim's American heritage, I Quit is bookended by two musical references from this side of the Atlantic. Opening track Gone samples the euphoric chorus of George Michael's Freedom! '90, and Now It's Time closes the record with an interpolation of U2's hypnotic Numb. That should work well live, especially as U2 haven't performed the original since 1993. 'We were on a huge nostalgic streak while making this album, partly because we were all single at the same time for the first time since high school,' said Danielle. As one West Coast pop legend leaves the stage, these three California girls are taking up the baton. Seven years ago, I stumbled on a show by emerging artist Yungblud in the small London venue Thousand Island. Just months out of his teens, and singing about gentrification and juvenile disenchantment, he was rough around the edges. But, with a sound that energetically mixed rock and rap, he was clearly one to watch. Fast-forward to today and the 27-year-old is one of the UK's most celebrated young musicians. His last two albums both topped the charts, and his back catalogue has been streamed six billion times. In 2022, he was the subject of a Louis Theroux TV special. Tomorrow, he curates his own music festival, Bludfest, in Milton Keynes. All of which heightens the expectations surrounding his fourth album, Idols. Produced with his long-term collaborator, Matt Schwartz, and made in Leeds, not far from Yungblud's hometown of Doncaster, it doesn't lack ambition. The first part of an intended double album, and described as 'a love letter to rock', it's bombastic and theatrical. The singer, real name Dominic Harrison, says the record revolves around the dangers of hero-worship. 'We turn to others for an identity before looking to ourselves,' he says. He makes his point on The Greatest Parade ('all I do is believe you, I need your praise'). His lyrics elsewhere are garbled, but he delivers them with real commitment. For all Yungblud's charisma — he's spoken eloquently about the need for positive male role models — his music is surprisingly conventional. Hello Heaven, Hello, all nine minutes of it, features Pete Townshend-like power chords and a chorus worthy of peak Bon Jovi. Zombie, a ballad inspired by the death of his grandmother, recalls the anguished indie-rock of Snow Patrol's Run. There are nods, too, to Parklife-era Blur (Lovesick Lullaby), Hunky Dory-era David Bowie (Change) and the special effects pedals used by U2 guitarist The Edge (Ghosts). More originality wouldn't go amiss. But, as he showed when he was still in the small clubs, he's an electrifying performer.
San Francisco Chronicle
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Music Review: HAIM return with a superb and salty breakup album
HAIM has declared this season to be 'single-girl summer' and offered us the soundtrack. Heartsick never sounded so good. '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 ('I swear you wouldn't care/If I was covered in blood lying dead on the street') 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. ___
