HAIM DAYS ARE GONE SONGS BETTER OFF MAC

For those who are satisfied to simply evaluate on this fact, here is an including-but-not-limited-to list of Days Are Gone's musical touchstones: The Go-Gos, Heart, Prince's pop eclecticism and multi-instrumentality, Sade, The Black Keys, Christine McVie-fronted Fleetwood Mac, Shania Twain ('Man I Feel Like a Woman'), Rod Stewart ('The Motown Song'), mid-era solo Paul Simon, Destiny's Child, and the atmospheric drama of Canadian indie rock. Haim certainly touches on a number of artists of yore, some obvious and some rather surprising.

SO, let's get something else out of the way - they are KINDA right. In fact, one could argue the persistent comparisonism (new word!) levied at Days Are Gone is KINDA sexist - yeah, it's reminiscint of a variety female pop/rock artists because the band consists of three chicks, we get it.

HAIM DAYS ARE GONE SONGS BETTER OFF MAC

The popular notions are that Days Are Gone is a Fleetwood Mac body double or that it exclusively panders to Cyndi Lauper-variety '80s music aficianados. I only raise this point because Haim's debut Days Are Gone has often been unfairly dogged by this very tactic, even in its positive reviews. Furthermore, it serves only to propagate the notion that a music critic nowadays is merely a buyer's reference guide - 'BUY THIS IF YOU LIKE !' WHEW! //end rant. This lazy criticism primarily conveys itself as the offender vomiting their 'music knowledge' all over the page. Simply 'reviewing' an album by pigeonholing it to another artist or another album is bullshit. Let's get something out of the way up front. By and large, HAIM in the studio is fantastic, but HAIM live is just phenomenal.Review Summary: The only problem with Haim right now is nothing to do with right now вЂ“ when youвЂ™ve attained the perfection of Days Are Gone right off the bat, where DO you go next? Hey, donвЂ™t worry about tomorrow when you can listen to Days Are Gone todayвЂ¦ ItвЂ™s a moment in time for the band where they went a certain way and explored that sound before heading elsewhere in their next album.ДЄnd IвЂ™d definitely agree with another commenter and recommend watching the short Valentine by Paul Thomas Anderson where he captures them in the studio when they were recording the album. So while itвЂ™s definitely far from the heavy-hitting indie-rock debut of DAG and the musical masterpiece of WIMPIII, itвЂ™s also not necessarily just a transitional album.

Still, there are some gems: the title track is sultry and catchy and showcases the Haim sistersвЂ™ preference for Uber-rhythmic melodies Walking Away is by far my favorite track on the album and I think itвЂ™s a perfect example of the complex layering in terms of production that defines the album and showcases Rostam at his best I Want you Back is just an all-around bop and Right Now has some of the most intimate and personal vocal performance by Danielle. There is also, as one commenter already said, a strong Fleetwood Mac influence (especially вЂ80s Fleetwood Mac think of albums like Tango in the Night) so for me it felt less authentic than DAG and more derivative in kind of a kitschy/hokey way.

A lot of the magic in the album derives (I think) less from the Haim sistersвЂ™ technical abilities or vocal/harmonic talents and more from ArielвЂ™s then-ultra modern and kinda trendy pop-production methods. STTY isnвЂ™t bad, but it certainly stands apart from the rest of their discography. And I think that many of those elements were saliently present in Days Are Gone which is why when that came out I instantly fell in love with the band. Now I have to admit that IвЂ™m the same age as the Haim Sisters (same age as Danielle actually) and grew up playing and listening to music that was influenced by older genres like blues, funk, R&B, soul, and of course, rock/rock and roll. Personally, IвЂ™ve always had a strange relationship with the album, and if anything, itвЂ™s the one that at the time of its release really turned me off HAIM up until WIMPIII came out (which I personally think is a modern masterpiece).

Haim days are gone songs better off