“We just try to not take ourselves too seriously and just kind of try to be funny on the internet,” admitted Este Haim, one third and the eldest of the namesake family trio HAIM, when I asked about creating silly but compelling social media content around the release of their album I quit. “Sometimes you just need a good laugh,” Este’s youngest sister Alana chimed in.
Since their first sparkly pop record in 2013, Days Are Gone, HAIM has reliably offered bops and singalongs without syrupy sweetness. Appealing to indie and commercial audiences alike, and boosted by collaborations with some megafamous friends plus roles in a feature film, the trio’s superpower might be in seeming so relatable and real. With a provocative wink here and a goofy grin there, HAIM’s brand is one of earnest and humorous young women exploring feelings over combinations of beats and harmonies that summon ’80s, ’90s and early ’00s music all at once.
But for all the band’s acclaim to this point, Este and Alana and primary lead vocalist Danielle found they could really “exhale” now, perhaps for the first time in their career, and “quit what no longer serves” them. Hence the name of the collection of 15 tracks released in June. Danielle said the songwriting on their fourth studio album was freer and looser, reflecting their shared intention to “enjoy our lives and what we’ve built.”
The enjoyment of life, of course, comes with consternation and setbacks. The record’s lead single “Relationships” is a plainspoken frustration about figuring out what’s what in, and WTF is up with, romantic connection. Despite how forthright the lyrics — “I think I’m in love, but I can’t stand fuckin’ relationships/Why do I have a guilty conscience?/I’ve always been averse to conflict/But you really fucked with my confidence” — this was a track they finessed over many rounds, finally bringing to dance-pop fruition a more balladesque version that Danielle first cracked out on flight.
Alana said they immediately knew the song was special and “the fans would get it,” and that surely came to pass with the help of co-producer Rostam. “Relationships” hyped up the long-awaited LP4 and inspired TikTok group dances while whetting the appetite for I quit, which would be released almost exactly five years after its predecessor Women in Music Pt. III.
HAIM’s third full-length, ultimately Grammy-nominated for Album of the Year, dropped just weeks into the COVID-19 lockdown and so they couldn’t tour it immediately. The delayed gratification of communing with fans on the postponed “One More HAIM” tour, which coincided with the 10th anniversary of their debut, invigorated the band with a renewed sense of purpose. They emphasized gratitude for the chance to play again live, which Alana said has been “our dream since we were children…getting out of L.A. and playing music together.”
Whereas Women in Music songs found them “quite angry,” Danielle reflected, the emotional landscape on I quit is more playful and shruggy. Even the choice to stylize the album title and song titles without capitals makes it somehow conversational. The overtly lusty “All over me” complements the self-assurance of “Everyone’s trying to figure me out.”
I quit is a sonic and lyrical lean-in to accepting the self. The collective mood of the sisters indicates less of a grip on image and more “serenity now!” — demanding inner peace at whatever cost. It’s about breathing through it, whatever life serves up, though they don’t shy away from nostalgia for simpler times, either. The official video for the jaunty “Take Me Back” shares actual family photos and HAIM tour memories captured unglamorous and overexposed. Like, once again, we’re invited to the slumber party.
I told the girls that their approach to sharing who they are proves that you can be hot and funny, that funny is hot. “Oh my god,” they cooed appreciatively, almost in unison. Alana said, “the 13-year-old me is soaring,” and yet, “when you’re in 7th grade and you just want to make out with a boy, telling a fart joke or falling doing physical comedy is not what they’re looking for. I did not know that.”
They continue to pump out self-directed, sometimes self-deprecating, reels and what-not, but HAIM does not apply such “fuck it” nonchalance to their gigs. Au contraire. The band has enhanced live concert production to make the “I quit” tour, now underway and stopping in Nashville on September 30, “the biggest show we’ve ever done.” On the tail end of rehearsals in August, Alana confessed that they can now comfortably own their control freak tendencies when it comes to getting every detail just right. But that’s about perfecting the show for the fan experience, which holds the highest value in their assessment of success. All this time, HAIM’s maintained “crazy opener mentality,” insisting upon high-energy, interactive shows that demonstrate the best of them, no matter the crowd size. “When we started this band we were opening for every band under the sun. So even though we’re headlining shows, we still feel like we’re the opener.” They’re still trying to earn it.
If “I quit” energy refers to letting go, I asked, what’s something new they’ve picked up recently? Alana’s new regimen includes positive self-talk and probiotic yogurt, since TikTok is always reminding her that women need to pay attention to their gut. So it seems the key to both mental health and digestive health is “Let’s keep it moving!” It’s shutting up the “inner gremlin” that’s so critical of every move and bringing lightness back. “Perfection is unattainable,” she coaches herself. “You miss the fun moments when you’re so in your head.”