Subtly different to Days Are Gone but retaining the familiar HAIM style that we've grown to love.
It’s crazy to think that four years have passed since Days Are Gone, HAIM‘s debut album, came out of nowhere to smash up the charts. With a new album just a month away, ‘Want You Back’ (discounting last week’s studio video release of ‘Right Now‘) is the first real taste of what we can expect to hear when Something To Tell You hits shelves.
Whilst returning us to some of the vocals we’ve grown to love from the sisters, there is certainly something a little different in this latest release. Although it does sound clearly like it could have come straight out of Days Are Gone, there are refreshing nuances that help separate it out – for example, the trio relies far more on their sung harmonies and seem to lack the occasionally shaky solitary vocals that were ever-present in their debut release. There’s something eerily upbeat and optimistic about this track, something that was completely unexpected but ultimately refreshing – mainly due to the use of hand claps and finger clicks for the chorus-straddling bassline. Oh, and that ending.
However, one cannot help but come away from ‘Want You Back’ a little disappointed – ever-so-slightly flat vocals are almost one of the band’s hallmarks and it just doesn’t fit in with what is on offer elsewhere here. Something different would have been nice, especially since they’ve had so much time to work on it, but HAIM seems to be sticking to the formula that has served them rather well so far.
‘Want You Back’ is out now via Polydor
