Something To Tell You (45RPM Double LP)

The LA trio's second album finds them adding a bittersweet edge to their fusion of retro pop styles.

With their very first album, 2013's Days Are Gone, LA's Haim staked out an instantly identifiable sound with depth as well as surface - something many other bands never achieve. Having located a narrow patch of ground where R&B and 1970s soft rock overlap on pop's Venn diagram, they exploited it mercilessly. (The 80s were called into service as required.) Those distinct eras and sounds are not so anachronistic, on reflection: both Fleetwood Mac and Destiny's Child rely heavily on multi-part harmonies and gleaming production, and Haim were - quite naturally - fans of both.

For their long-awaited second album, Haim have stuck to this sweet spot. Once again, Ariel Rechtshaid produces, busily squaring circles so that everything sounds lush, but punchy. Sure, Haim update - you can hear faint echoes of former tour-mate Taylor Swift in the title track. The finger-snapping Ready for You, meanwhile, has the vaguest hint of an 80s Jackson about it - Michael, or Janet. Largely, though, the impression of three Stevie Nickses conversant with digital production software endures.

Haim really know what they are doing. There are digressions to kill for here, what you might once have called middle eights, indefatigable melodies, and weird little noises - a horse neigh and a seagull coda on Want You Back, a fax machine on Found It in Silence, the gasping on Nothing's Wrong - to keep you clamping your headphones to your ears in delight.

The biggest change is in wind-speed. Haim's debut was defined by its breeziness, the ease with which these three footloose twentysomething women exuded musicality. Now, the pall of something bittersweet hangs over the mixing desk, which is sparking from the tears poured into it. Haim have something to tell us: that relationships are hard. "I'll take the fall and the fault in us," sings Haim's lead mouthpiece, guitarist Danielle, on Want You Back.

Handily, 70s soft rock is a well-worn vector for such feelings. And if there is a nit to pick with Something to Tell You, it is that Haim's balance of R&B and soft rock has leaned too far in favour of blowsy wallowing, and away from R&B's clever sonic feints and tough-girl postures.

If you're in need of retro succour, though, these wise sisters are there with balmy sounds and trenchant analysis. "I guess you never knew what was good for you," reflects Danielle on You Never Knew. "I know what's good for me," she counters on Found It in Silence.
4 / 5 The Guardian