HAIM - I Quit

After five years away, the three Haim sisters – Danielle, Alana and Este – return with their fourth album in twelve years: “I Quit” might look like a negative statement of intent, an unconditional surrender, a throwing-up of hands. And perhaps it is, but out of that surrender comes – as with the best heartbreaks – an inspired musical poetry that flows free and spontaneous across this heartfelt 15-track tracklist, which, while looking back to sounds of years gone by, still comes off fresh, catchy and compelling.

The album's dominant character is a solid 1970s-style folk-rock, in which Haim's singer-songwriter sensibility is paired with decisive rhythmic arrangements designed to make the songs energetic yet elegant. Behind the boards is Rostam Batmanglij – already a collaborator on the trio's previous record, “Women In Music Pt. III” – who once again proves he walked off with the best part of Vampire Weekend's sound. Bad news for the NYC band, good news for the LA sisters.

Across the songs, the three sisters – often relying on Danielle's voice, the de facto leader of the group, first and foremost – reflect on the various facets of modern love stories. They've always done this to some extent, ever since their debut album came out in 2013; but here they rediscover a melancholy and a sense of powerlessness that carry less sarcasm and encourage more mutual understanding between the sexes, in the rediscovery of a certain old-fashioned romanticism – albeit with the odd "fuck" thrown in here and there – that truly feels like it's sung for everyone.

Musically, the record is powerful and varied. The intriguing intro of "Gone", a crescendo in 70s style, builds an intense soft-rock atmosphere and ties back to what has always been cited as the sisters' prime influence: Fleetwood Mac. And given the resentful streak running through the lyrics, it's a track that could easily have found a home on an album like "Rumours". "Relationships" heads in a different direction, already one of the most popular tracks of 2025, with a cadenced soul groove that recalls some of the most classic Beyoncé moments – or Solange, even better.

The encouraging, nostalgic "Take Me Back" is a country track with "rap" vocals – spoken-word, really – delivered in a very "southern" accent, but it also recalls some of the things Jack Antonoff loves doing with his Bleachers, especially in its very "party" arrangement. And between a sitar ("Love You Right"), a Dylan-style harmonica and a banjo ("The Farm"), there's also room for the distorted rock wall of sound of "Lucky Stars", all the way to the fast, semi-electronic experiment with jungle rhythms of "Million Years" – among whose credited writers, mind you, is Justin Vernon.

"Everybody's Trying To Figure Me Out" is already another modern classic, a pop-rock track where you can really hear the three sisters harmonizing, and where the sharp, frantic drumming really does sound like it could be courtesy of a Mick Fleetwood. "Spinning", on the other hand, is the only track that seems to take us fully back into 2010s indie-pop territory, with more room for keyboards and more focus on rhythm, less on atmosphere and poetry. And finally, noteworthy is the interesting experiment of "Now It's Time", built entirely around a clearly audible sample of "Numb" by U2.

The impression left by this fourth Haim album is that the three sisters are more confident about what they want and about their place in the contemporary music landscape. The rediscovery of sounds from another era, folded into a modern-sounding whole, signals a desire to make ambitious music for everyone, speaking to the young and the not-so-young, to women as much as men, and to all of us – especially to anyone with a broken heart, yet again. The themes are the same as fifty years ago, and the music – more or less – is too; but the way Haim deliver it, the formula works wonderfully.

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30/06/2025