HAIM

Something to Tell You

The Haim sisters are back with Something To Tell You, a big, brash, bold pop record which has rather more depth than some might expect.

A record that never gets dull and shows growth musically with all three advancing on their skills.

At many of its poppiest moments, the core of Something to Tell You can be obscured in its crowded tapestry of hooks, licks, and rapid fire refrains. It shines best when Haim step back, relax, and allow the songs to expand into their own idiosyncratic shapes.

Although Haim’s strict adherence to the ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ approach may not produce anything remotely unexpected, it does allow the group to once again cement their status as the current masters of sun-kissed soft-rock.

The reality is that Something to Tell You, though strong in its own right, just doesn’t quite live up to the pomp and circumstance established by Days.

On Something To Tell You, HAIM tend not to over complicate things with their West Coast pop: something that mostly plays to their advantage, but at times leaves them playing it safe.

Clearly, at some point in the last four years, Haim made the decision to keep their odder musical urges in check. You can understand why, although it’s hard not to feel that, had they let them run a little wilder, Something to Tell You might be a richer album.

The ways they refashioned vintage pop on Days Are Gone felt risky, but Something to Tell You offers safer, smaller pleasures.

All the digital trickery may help Haim sound like they belong in the post-rock era – but it risks robbing them of the quality that makes them unique.

Precisely wielded hooks and polished production can only carry a song so far, and it's difficult for Something to Tell You to gain much traction when the Haim sisters convey heartsick sentiments in only the broadest and vaguest of terms.

The Haim sisters return with a front-loaded sophomore album.

Something to Tell You doesn’t attempt anything new and keeps it safe ...  and when your best track is yet another sanitized extract of Tango in the Night, well, that’s not saying much.

This is the kind of music that artificial intelligence will be creating in the near future, should such dystopian chart-based horror come to pass. Sleek, polished, fine-tuned to every conceivable demand and safer than Fort Knox, Something To Tell You is less artistic expression and more laser-focused consolidation.