Days Are Gone
Polydor/Universal
This week’s flavour of the month comes from LA in shape of a debut album by newcomers, HAIM. Comprising of three sisters, the band has been “on radar” for some time and now finally have a product upon which they will be judged.
The sound the Haim sisters produce if stripped bare would easily be categorised as folkish pop, not far away from the usual singer-songwriter territory. Yet, on this massively overproduced album they’ve gone for an extremely synthesised ‘80s pop sound. Strangely, live they have a classic two guitars, bass and drums line-up, but those instruments are barely audible on the studio recordings.
It’s hard to see the reason for such move, apart from a deliberate decision to treat the recordings differently from live performance in order to appeal to a wider audience. In any case, the songwriting is immaculate, arrangements and vocal harmonies top notch and most of the songs are catchy as, which makes Days Are Gone an interesting hybrid of styles that simply seems to work well.
_ PREDRAG DELIBASICH
