Exposure: Haim set for 2013 UK tour dates
Sweet, yearning, retro pop melodies from sister-heavy band
When Haim look towards their future, do they see anything between themselves and a torrent of riches and acclaim? We’ve checked, and we can detect nothing. Were we to be unimaginative, in fact, we’d say they have all the retroisms to one day go on to be a kind of female Kings of Leon, except with a gift for sweet, yearning pop melodies rather than gravelly, masculine truck drivin’ country rockers.
Who are they?
Sisters (another KOL similarity) Este, Danielle and Alana Haim, and drummer Dash Hutton. When they were at school in southern California the three women played in a covers band called Rockinhaim with their dad Mordechai and mother Donna, and Danielle and Este were in minor Columbia-signed girl group The Valli Girls. Danielle is also Jenny Lewis’, Julian Casablancas’ and Cee-Lo Green’s former live guitarist.
Are they good?
Very much so, in The List’s opinion, if you like breezy MOR rock with a bit of bite and heart to it. We saw them in Stereo last year and they were tremendous, covering Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Oh Well’ to perfection, grinding out the R’n’B-style slow jam ‘Go Slow’ and charging through their mighty breakthrough single ‘Don’t Save Me’ and the arguably even better ‘Let Me Go’. All single at the time, they also menaced the poor menfolk of Glasgow in impressive style: ‘we've tried haggis balls -- you know how we feel about balls in this band, right?’
What’s next?
The debut album in the summer, produced by Paul ‘Adele’ Epworth and James ‘Simian Mobile Disco’ Ford. How can it fail?
Haim play SWG3, Glasgow, Mon 27 May and T in the Park, near Kinross, Fri 12 Jul.