We need to talk about these new Haim songs

Oh goodness gracious! The days of Haim’s debut album ‘Days Are Gone’ are finally, err, gone and a new epoch of goodness has arrived.

Here’s the lowdown: while killing-it at The Observatory in California last week, Danielle, Este and Alana debuted two new tracks that are probably going to feature on their next release. Frankly, it’s about bloody time. The sisters have been well sneaky when it comes to giving away much information about future releases since their first LP was released. In October, they said that their ‘fish fingers are in the tray’ - which could’ve meant that they were working on a new album, or that they’d just rustled up a quick Birds Eye dinner. Thankfully for us it meant the former, and since then they’ve been quietly working on a new LP.

All we had to go by was some other pretty cryptic quotes – one being Alana’s quip that they are going to ‘tap into (their) inner Kanye’ and the fab fact that all-round desk-manning maestro Ariel Rechtshaid is on production duties again. Oh, and just a month or so back, they gave us a tiny little exciting video of them in the studio, along with the exclamatory message of ‘NEW SONGS. NEW SHOW. THIS SUMMER.’ But, for all the tantalising tweets and drool-inducing slices of Goss Pie we haven’t had too much concrete info to go on. You know, like, actual songs! This changes now.

‘Nothing’s Wrong’

The first new track played by the band - ‘Nothing’s Wrong’ - is an absolute 70s-inspired banger, decorated with stomping drums and twangy guitar hooks. Not to mention the fab little backing vocals from Este (“tell, t-t-tell me!”) scattered in the choruses like an earworm wriggling through a sonic garden. Halfway through, there’s an absolutely fab little bridge that would get any English teacher’s juices flowing (ooer) with its combined assonance and consonance - “It’s obvious / be honest”. Then, to finish it all off, Danielle unleashes a blistering feel-good solo coated in layers of reverb and sass.

For seconds? ‘Give Me Just A Little Bit of Your Love’. It’s all centred around a tongue-twisting frenetic chorus consisting of the titular phrase and plinky-plonky electro-piano hooks. It’s vintage Haim; Este’s head is bopping in its classical to-and-fro rhythm, and everything’s as sharp as could be. As some commenters have pointed out, Alana is also doing all the lead guitar in the song which is something new and cool to see. We’re sure giving this a little bit of our love and then some.

All in all, these two new tracks are hugely exciting. It’s true that nothing seems too new about them, apart from the fact that Tommy Bongos (Haim’s new-ish keyboardist) features a bit more, allowing Alana to rock-out on the guitar one hunna percent of the time. But if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, and all that – their 70s soft-rock formula, catchy vocals and instant hooks created something truly special – and we wouldn’t want anything else.

Sure, we don’t have some sort of glammed-up TARDIS, but you don’t need to be a #HaimTraveller to know that the upcoming LP is going to be quality.