Among many things, the family musical trio Haim is known for their movement. In the music video for the single “Summer Girl”, the sisters strut the streets of Los Angeles as they shed layers, ripping off tank tops and sweaters on a street dotted with palm trees; in “Don’t Wanna”, the women lap the vacant parking lot of the Forum, suddenly breaking into a jog and then a sprint. “The fact that they literally invented walking”, reads one comment on the latter video; “Guys don’t be silly”, says another, “Haim didn’t invent walking. They just perfected it.”
And when it comes to their craft, Haim is no stranger to movement. Their third studio album, Women in Music Pt. III, is infused with an infectious rhythm, the very sound of the effortless stride the sisters have become known for. In WIMPIII, every song is its own organism, with a beating pulse and limbs fit for a jaunt through the streets of Los Angeles.
The trio’s first two albums, Days Are Gone (2013) and Something To Tell You (2017), brought commercial success for the Haim sisters and proved fertile breeding ground for a lifetime of brazen indie-pop anthems. Although solid bodies of work in isolation, these first two records are overcome with a kind of pallidness: everything is smoothed over and sublimated, rendering the fruits of an otherwise successful songbook into a studio-engineered plastic box.
Such is not the case in Women in Music Pt. III. The album is overcome with texture, indicative of a life teeming with excitement beyond the ever-fluctuating pulse lying beneath the surface. Every sound previously explored by Haim is made abundant here, sometimes even stretched to its limits. It’s an expansion for the band, and a successful one at that; the sisters’ sensibilities and influences shine more than ever here, allowing a fluidity of genres to enhance several lifetimes worth of songwriting savvy.
Women in Music Pt. III rears its beautiful head with a bang, the bristling energy of “Los Angeles”, a reverent, bittersweet ode to the trio’s hometown. “Give me a miracle, I just want out from this”, pleads lead vocalist and co-producer Danielle Haim, “I’ve done my share of helping with your defense / but now I can’t dismiss / it’s killing me”.
The album runs at a skipping pace, a record defined not only by its sound but the moments between the sound. Haim delicately transitions from beat to beat, every song distinct from beginning to end. There is little repetition in the best way; the album thrives in its divergence. The thunderous second track “The Steps” dips effortlessly into the cadenced downbeat delicacy of “I Know Alone”; the intimate, plucking “Gasoline” makes way for the nineties R&B-inspired “3 AM”.
All in all, Women in Music Pt. III is a product of sheer confidence. There is a spirit of playfulness, a sense of infectious delight that permeates even the album’s downtempo ambitions (“Another Try”, “Man from the Magazine”). Haim are world-class artists with the swagger to match, and WIMPIII is the greatest encapsulation thus far of what the sisters are capable of.
Love Haim Mathilda, especially 'Falling'.
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Tim
I think their debut will always have a special place, but all three albums are exceptionally great!