FAMILY JEWELS

On I Quit’, Haim break with the familiar and that includes shedding past sounds, not just exes

- Helen Brown

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 so