There’s a muscular, swaggering energy to Haim’s fourth album that you might not intuit from its title: I Quit. This is not about defeat or resignation. “When we say I quit,” Alana Haim explained in a recent GQ interview, “it’s like ‘I quit all the things that don’t serve me’. And it’s really amazing because quitting is the new beginning.”
It's an easy, breezy concept that is sure to land with fatigued female listeners. The record sees the Los Angeles sister act stride confidently away from toxic exes, the mansplainers of the music industry, and the Fleetwood Mac-indebted widescreen Eighties reverb that defined their early sound. Often the momentum of this record comes from a raw, slack-swung elbowed electro/acoustic strum that occasionally reminded me of the backroom bar of Sheryl Crow’s 1993 album Tuesday Night Music Club. Written after lead singer and middle sibling Danielle Haim broke up with her long-term partner and producer Ariel Rechtshaid, and moved into younger sibling Alana’s house – with its beer fridge and “frat boy” vibe – it's clear the Haim clan decided all they wanna do is have some fun.
The attitude is strong on opener “Gone”. “Can I have your attention please?/ For the last time before I leave” drawls Danielle over a restless, clipped guitar. Samples of George Michael’s euphoric “Freedom! ’90” weave into the mix as the singer shrugs off a lover she’s seen through. “You can hate me for what I am/ You can shame me for what I’ve done… You never saw me for what I was.” A Keith Richards-esque guitar solo fills her departing sails with old-school pirate momentum as the beat picks up. It’s a bop. The “f*** it” vibe continues on the poppier, synth-backed “Relationships”. There’s a warm, casual swing to the loose beat, background street-corner effects and Nineties hip-hop nodding backing vocals as Danielle tunes into her sweeter, more blasé register to lament the ways in which her romantic entanglements “end up all the same”. The Crow force feels strongest on “Down to be Wrong”, powered by a churning guitar and raw-throated vocal as Danielle throws her lungs into lines such as “Boy, I crushed my whole heart/ Trying to fit my soul into your arms.” The melody builds with infectious confidence.
It’s no coincidence the Haim sisters are so often filmed walking in their videos. Their songs at least deliver momentum and intention. On this record their pace shifts through an impressive range of genres from countryfied Californian sundaze to baggy boom bap. Headphone users will find themselves slipping into all the strides and moods of the varied beats: the solid 4/4 handclap/thump and sure-footed piano chords of “Love You Right”; the peppy, Eighties indie rap of “Take Me Back” (which is about nostalgia for lost, wild times and not a plea to a former lover); the disco snap strut of “Spinning” (with Alana’s vocals taking a shimmering lead); the loping, hi-hat grunge of “Lucky Stars” and the moving mooch of the synth-country power ballads “Cry” (on which Este gets tenderly vulnerable).
At a sprawling 15 tracks, I Quit could’ve benefited from them abandoning some run time too. It might have lost weaker songs, such as “Million Years” with its clunky lines (“I’d stop every war/ Even if it takes a million years/ And how long has the sun been here”). It sometimes feels like there’s more momentum than melody. But for all its promise that it never quite delivers on, I Quit is still another cool step in the band’s evolution – as well as a great way for fans to get their own step count up.
