Casually glance at the track listing for HAIM’s Something To Tell You and it’s obvious this is an album full of breakup songs and lost love. Titles similar to “Want You Back” and “Kept Me Crying” foreshadow the record’s content. Personal growth through heartbreak aside, their second full length album strays little from 2013’s Days Are Gone and its dance-inducing, infectious pop sound.
Relentlessly touring in support of Days Are Gone for two years, and also the standard burden any band faces when trying to write a great record after a successful debut, weigh heavy on this album. While the first few songs of the album sound like a continuation of sorts from Days Are Gone, tracks like “Ready For You” and “Something to Tell You” come through slightly different with more glitchy drum patterns, albeit having left out some of HAIM’s more notable rock qualities. Just when the listener’s attention drifts off to 2013, the sixth track “You Never Knew” kicks in with a dance-worthy beat and some dreamy resonating chords, now we truly hear the growth and emotion that fans want from this album.
The remaining songs stick with the failed relationship theme, “Kept Me Crying” and its marching kick drum will conjure the image of a lost lover walking away, in the truest soft rock fashion. “Right Now” is that same lover walking back, soft dreary landscapes that erupt into conflicting emotions. At this point Something To Tell You can almost be perceived as a single relationship, with its dramatic ups and downs, perhaps spanning a four year period. The closing song “Night So Long” is beautiful and noisy, it portrays the very essence of a broken heart, and ends abruptly leaving the listener to reminisce about their own lost loves.
Something To Tell You may be a bit unbalanced but it is a lament and celebration of human relationship along with the perils that tag along when you invest trust into a lover. The Haim sisters are not afraid to share this with their fans, this notion will go a long way in future years.
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