A while back a friend recommended the band Haim to me. I had not heard of them but within a few minutes of searching I was perplexed: this was a band comprised of three young women, sisters, who made some kind of music…

I say some kind of music because even after listening to a few songs it was not terribly clear. Apparently I am not the only person to feel this way. A quick visit to the Wikipedia page for Haim offers up a few nuggets.

Haim (pronounced hy-əm^[1][a] and stylized as HAIM) is an American pop rock band from Los Angeles, California. The band consists of three sisters Este, Danielle and Alana Haim, and drummer Dash Hutton. The group’s pop sound on their studio work stands in contrast to the more rock-based music of their live shows

Haim has been compared the 1970s soft-rock band Fleetwood Mac, though the group say they are “squeamish” about this comparison and insist they are influenced by more recent music.^[50] According to Metro, their music sounds like folk-rock “with a few R&B/hip-hop stylings thrown in for good measure”.^[51]

Though he (Hutton, the drummer for the band) declines to appear in press and publicity photos, he is nevertheless a full-time member of the band.^[4]

So first of all, I feel better about me for not really getting their sound. Apparently what they recorded does not sound like what they play live and when they are asked to describe their sound they pretty much snatch up everything except country. Okay then.

Second, and it is not all that important, I find it odd that this band is marketed as three sisters making music when there is a fourth member who appears nowhere. Is it just me? I find this odd. I only learned he existed after looking at this page. Moving on.

Since my friend recommended the band to me I gave them more of a try than I usually would had I just encountered this music on my own. After four or five songs I was, to put it mildly, not interested. The comparison they disliked so much, to Fleetwood Mac is far beyond what this studio album deserves. They should be so lucky to make soothing/interesting/enjoyable music like Fleetwood.

Rather than run them down, which is not the point of Music Monday’s, I am happy to report that I came across a song that I enjoy. It is an odd song, one that I am unable to put my finger on and if I found myself trying to recommend this song to strangers I would be hard pressed to define. They refer to what they did as:

“My Song 5” as “ripping off” Justin Timberlake.^[7]

Justin Timberlake has never had this much testosterone in one of his songs. It is an odd, funky strangely put together number that has a very “masculine” guitar riff and an aggressive beat that carries everything along with it. There are two versions of the song and  I prefer the one without the guest appearance from A$ap Ferg because his lyrics are wildly out of place. I am hoping that he wrote them for another piece of music and they were incorporated without anyone paying too much attention. My guess is I am wrong.

I am linking the version he does not appear in, although I have to admit, it does feel a bit empty in places. If I had to rate this song I would give it a four out of five and that is because there is a quality to it that I cannot put my finger on. I think it is good. I am not positive but I think so.