Days Are Gone is remarkably solid and—forthcoming changes or not—with all the hype and talent behind the group, Haim is overwhelmingly likely to succeed.
Days Are Gone is an album of 11 stadium-worthy singles, each band member rushing to the next hook with the zeal of a solider throwing herself over a bomb to protect the battalion.
With the triumvirate of googly-eyed rhythms, sinfully catchy melodies and a breeziness that seems only fitting, they’ve served up one of the most auspicious debuts of the year.
When you hear about the influences and consider just how slick the record can be, you might imagine Haim coming over as faceless. But the band's most unusual quality on Days Are Gone is their ability to absorb inputs and continue to sound distinct.
It is an album that crosses genres without fuss or fanfare, transitioning seamlessly from pop-rock to wonky synth-funk, and back again.
‘Days Are Gone’ confirms what everybody already knew in fabulous style; that Haim are the band to shout about.
Sure, the sequencing could have used some tweaking, but Days Are Gone is a commendable effort that manages to answer all of the hype.
Days Are Gone showcases the band’s individual strengths that have been pulled together to create a collective group with intensity and depth of potential.
It's a fantastically fun experience through a balls-out circuit of disco, pop, funk, R&B and rock, splattered with singalong mantras pertaining to l'amour. Days Are Gone will do nothing to stem the flow of hype washing over these girls (and boy).
This is frivolous, immaculate music. It is unlikely to gain any greater resonance as time marches forward, but just the same, I suspect that it will sound no more and no less pristine in 35 years than it does at this very moment.
It’s not revolutionary, life-changing ‘high art’ but right here, right now Haim’s sassy, enthusiastic, ‘one for all’ joie de vivre feels freshly invigorating, infectious ...basically, a drop o’ the good stuff.
A debut album that could pass for a greatest-hits collection, Days Are Gone will provide musical comfort food for some, and possibly an introduction to irony-free pop for others.
Haim have been working towards this since they were barely strong enough to hold a guitar, and over time they've written more good tunes than most bands manage in a whole career.
Freakily poised but never cloying, Days Are Gone is an album that will fade blissfully into your local Urban Outfitters/vintage shop/American gathering, where, like some kind of mollifying drug, people exposed to it will be happier without either knowing or caring why.
What separates the coven of sisters from their UK contemporaries, however, is that their debut doesn’t define them explicitly. It balances expectations with mystery, aligning their identity with a roulette of vantage points.
The songs are strong enough to keep pulling you in for repeated listens, each hook burying itself deeper and deeper.
For a first foray into the pop universe, Days Are Gone is a hell of an opening salvo.
Haim neither flinch nor blush in their directness and neither should you in enjoying ‘Days Are Gone’ for what it is: unabashed fun.
Days Are Gone caters very specifically fans of slick Eighties pop-rock and little else.
Stretched to album length, Haim’s shtick grows repetitive and the music is too frequently solid rather than inspired.
Across Days Are Gone’s 11 tracks, vocals are invariably, unlovably forced, lyrics delivered with dead-eyed artificiality, and for all their harping on being a real, organic band, the whole drab thing sounds like it’s never seen an actual guitar.
Vastly improving upon their debut EP, the sisters draw upon the music they were raised on, like so many millennial groups, their parents' era of 70's classic rock. Incorporating their own brand of R&B and electronic elements from their other favorite artists, they really generate a pop album unified by the three sisters likemindedness. This includes a superb ear for pop music, relatable charismatic personalities and the immense talent for pop-songwriting shared by three siblings, a real ... read more
Awesome rock album with great grooves and sticky choruses. Despite sounding like the 2010s, it sounds like the best part of that decade's culmination of pop-rock hits.
Plus, a lot of the tunes here are really creative in contrast to most generic radio songs at the time.
Fav Songs: Falling, Forever, The Wire, If I Could Change Your Mind, Days Are Gone, My Song 5, Running If You Call My Name
one of the most interesting and important debuts of the last decade. the haim sisters came onto everyone's radar with a totally fresh sound for the time, combining a fusion of pop with funk beats and hooky guitars. a very original and undoubtedly interesting start to a fairly solid career established over the years
1 | Falling 4:17 | 90 |
2 | Forever 4:05 | 90 |
3 | The Wire 4:05 | 88 |
4 | If I Could Change Your Mind 3:50 | 90 |
5 | Honey & I 4:11 | 79 |
6 | Don't Save Me 3:51 | 87 |
7 | Days Are Gone 3:33 | 87 |
8 | My Song 5 3:53 | 83 |
9 | Go Slow 4:17 | 80 |
10 | Let Me Go 4:08 | 80 |
11 | Running If You Call My Name 4:04 | 83 |
#2 | / | A.V. Club |
#2 | / | Idolator |
#2 | / | Red Bull |
#4 | / | Listen Before You Buy |
#4 | / | Pigeons & Planes |
#4 | / | Spin |
#6 | / | Billboard |
#7 | / | Complex |
#7 | / | Under the Radar |
#8 | / | Stereogum |