Tag: Haim

HAIM – The Wire

“As far as I’m concerned, their best single yet.”

Tim: If you recall, these are officially the Sound of 2013 and are now here with, as far as I’m concerned, their best single yet.

Tom: Is… is that a compliment or a slight? Because if their other singles have been dire…

Tim: Oh, a compliment – cast your mind back to January, you’ll remember that we both enjoyed their track Forever from last year.

Tim: And what do you know? Turns out that 2013 is remarkably similar to 1999, or if not then Shania Twain’s fallen through a wormhole (also not a slight, by the way).

Tom: It’s definitely got a touch of pop-country about it. And that final chorus, where everything comes together, is just gorgeous.

Tim: There are some brilliant parts to this – the lead back from the middle eight is particularly great – but all over I’m very hard pressed to fault this. Currently on my fourth repeated listen, and it’s showing no signs of growing tired yet.

Tom: I’m not quite that enthusiastic, but I agree with you that I can’t really fault it.

Tim: I really, really hope this does well, so I’m slightly saddened by my inbuilt pessimism that is almost certain that this won’t be playlisted by Radio 1, might get the odd play elsewhere, and then will just about nudge its way into the top 40. I so, so hope I’m wrong, though, I really do.

Tom: You’re almost certainly right.

Tim: Dammit.

Saturday Flashback: Haim – Forever

“It is indeed guitar-heavy.”

Tim: George Ergatoudis, big boss of Radio 1, recently said that guitars are coming back this year.

Tom: I didn’t know they’d been away. Isn’t that like saying “drums, they’re the new thing”?

Tim: I think there’s a sort of “I’m bored with pop, I want to bring back Kasabian and that lot” which is a tad upsetting, especially when you recall that there were a few guitars in this track.

But still, to prove his point, this group of three Californian sisters have been chosen by him and many other ‘influential’ music people as the Sound of 2013. (This is a great honour, and definitely a sign of good things to come for them – after all, I barely went a single week without hearing something by Michael Kiwanuka last year.)

Tom: To be fair, their original Sounds of 2003 did rather well.

Tim: True, although I am reminded of this time last year, when I suggested that the shortlisted Niki & The Dove would have a worse year than 2011’s worst-farer, then considered myself a bit harsh, but then went on to be proved disappointingly correct. But still! We’re in 2013 now, so let’s find out what it will sound like.

Tim: I’ll be honest – this is quite good. Their most recent single, Don’t Save Me, is somewhat dull, but the same can’t be said for this. It is indeed guitar-heavy, especially the beginning of that middle eight, which is in a good way, but the synth breakdown that follows that is also a good thing.

Tom: Guitar-heavy? Really? It’s got guitars in it, sure, but if this qualifies as guitar-heavy then I’d like your opinion on, say, Muse.

Tim: A fair point.

Tom: That’s not a complaint, though, and you’re right about that middle eight – it’s a pretty good track, and reminds me of something that might have come out from one of the 90s girl-power bands that were trying to be more ‘authentic’ than the Spice Girls. Again, not a complaint.

Tim: Disappointingly it’s slightly out of character, because I don’t think any other their others have any nice synthy bits, but then we don’t need to listen to all of them. If the Sound of 2013 is indeed like this, I’ll be able to cope with it just nicely. So that’s that then.