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L-R: Este, Danielle, and Alana. Not pictured: that one guy.

"It felt great, it felt right, but I fumbled it when it came down to the wire..."
— "The Wire"

Haim (pronounced "HY-im", meaning "life" in Hebrew, and stylized in All Caps) is a Los Angeles-based rock band comprised of the three Haim sisters: Este, Alana, and Danielle.

Haim started out as a family classic rock cover band named Rockinhaim, which included the three sisters playing instruments alongside their parents, Mordechai and Donna, who fronted the band. The band played at various local events until Danielle and Este left to join the girl group Valli Girls in the early 2000s. After the breakup of the Valli Girls, Danielle went to work as a backing guitarist for Julian Casablancas and Cee Lo Green while Este completed her studies at UCLA.

In 2010, the sisters added drummer Dash Hutton, formerly of Punk Rock groups Wires On Fire and Slang Chicken, and released the Forever EP to critical acclaim. The singles "Don't Save Me" and "The Wire" kept their momentum going in the lead-up to their debut album, Days Are Gone, released on September 30, 2013, which immediately blitzed the charts and by most accounts validated the hype. They were subsequently nominated for Best New Artist at the 2015 Grammy Awards.

Haim then got another big break when they were tapped by Taylor Swift to be the opening act on a leg of her blockbuster 1989 tour. Their second album, Something to Tell You, was released in 2017 to mixed reviews, with a common critique being that it sounded overproduced and too much like straight pop music. Their third album, 2020's Women in Music Part. III, won back the crowd with its much more raw and personal approach, which received unanimous critical acclaim and two more Grammy nominations. On January 16, 2023, Haim announced through a video on their TikTok that they were back in the studio working on their fourth album.

Haim mostly play a variant of Southern California soft rock heavily influenced by '80s pop and '90s Contemporary R&B, though they're most often compared to a (hopefully far less dysfunctional) Fleetwood Mac and, to a lesser extent, Wilson Phillips.

Lineup:

  • Danielle Haim (lead guitar, lead vocals, drums)
  • Este Haim (guitar, bass, backing vocals)
  • Alana Haim (rhythm guitar, backing vocals, keyboard, percussion)
  • Dash Hutton (drums)

Discography:

  • Forever EP (2012)
  • Falling EP (2012)
  • Days Are Gone (2013)
  • Something to Tell You (2017)
  • Women in Music Pt. III (2020)


Their music provides examples of the following tropes:

  • Arrow Catch: Danielle catches an arrow shot by Este in the music video for "Falling".
  • Band of Relatives: Sisters Este Haim, Danielle Haim, Alana Haim and The One Guy Dash Hutton.
  • Break-Up Song: "The Wire", of the "I Blew It, I Regret It, But It's Too Late to Apologize" type, and "Right Now", which instead has no regrets and goes the "don't try to make up" way.
  • B-Side: Almost entirely dance mixes with the exception of Send Me Down.
  • The Cameo:
  • Cool Shades: All three sisters often wear sunglasses. Women in Music Part III is their first album cover to not depict them in sunglasses.
  • Country Matters: Man from the Magazine ends with one:
    You don't know how it feels, you don't know how it feels, you don't know how it feels... to be the cunt
  • Cover Version: They love performing other people's music on stage. The songs include "Wrecking Ball", "XO", "Oh Well", "Hold Me", "I'll Try Anything Once", "99 Luftballoons", "Strong Enough" (with an assist from Lorde), "Mustang Sally" (rejoined by their parents), and "Rihannon" {with Stevie Nicks herself!).
  • Darker and Edgier: Women in Music Part. III, coming after the Lighter and Softer Something to Tell You.
  • Early-Installment Weirdness: Este and Danielle performed in an early installment of the band minus Alana called The Valli Girls, which landed a song on the soundtrack to The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. Este and Danielle regard this time as an Old Shame today.
  • Epic Rocking: The girls often have Grateful Dead-style jam sessions at their concerts.
  • Everything Is an Instrument: Este eschews her bass on Strong Enough in favor of co-lead vocals and a glass bottle, played as though it were a hand-held drum.
  • Genre Roulette: Although best known for soft-rock hits The Wire and Don't Save Me, there's plenty of synth-pop, r&b, and garage-rock weirdness to go around on their debut alone.
  • Homage: Their sound is a general homage to the music they grew up listening to.
    • The music video for My Song 5 was a homage to 1990s Trash TV talk shows, complete with Este portraying a guest who confesses to her boyfriend that she's sexually attracted to mimes. Because it's Este.
    • The Wire is pretty reminiscent of Heartache Tonight by The Eagles in both its sound and structure, and especially its drumbeat.
  • Ms. Fanservice:
    • At first it was primarily Este, who often performed in short skirts and always seemed to enjoy the inevitable panty flashes that came with it.
    • Upon the release of Women in Music Part III, they all began cultivating this:
      • Their posters and promotional photos frequently features the sisters in various states of nudity, obscured only by using their instruments as Hand-or-Object Underwear. They also promoted themselves on social media in a similar way, posting pictures of themselves nude, using strategically placed copies of the album as Hand-or-Object Underwear. They promoted their "One More Haim" tour with a Red Hot Chili Peppers reminiscent image of the three of them with their pants around their ankles.
      • The music video for "Summer Girl" features the sisters slowly stripping off more and more clothes until they end up in bikini tops and shorts.
      • Their tour outfits for the "One More Haim" tour are a matching set of black bras and leather pants that show off their bodies well.
  • Nobody Loves the Bassist: Subverted. Este knows everybody, and EVERYBODY loves Este. Listen to her and Darren Criss's podcast for proof.
  • Pretty Fly for a White Guy: Este breaking into freestyle raps on topics the audience suggests has become a staple of live shows.
  • Retraux: Haim's songs are often likened to late-70s or early-80s radio hits.
  • Shout-Out:
  • Statuesque Stunner: Este is 6’ 0”.
  • V-Formation Team Shot: Their usual performance set-up is Danielle in the middle and front with Este stage left and Alana stage right. Oh and Dash Hutton is there somewhere.
  • A Wild Rapper Appears!: The remix of "My Song 5" adds a verse from A$AP Ferg (unsurprisingly, the album version lacks his verse).

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