Haim is back. First, they shared photos of Danielle smooching on their Instagram. Then, they started doing their funny sketches again. Now, we’ve got a single title, “Relationships,” and some art that looks a little familiar. Is that — wait a minute — the same parking lot where the infamous (and allegedly false) Nicole Kidman after signing the Tom Cruise divorce papers meme takes place? You tell me!
How does each individual Haim sister stack up against the original image? Well, Alana has Kidman’s rosy cheeks and apparent joie de vivre. Danielle nailed the posture: elbows slightly bent, chest and heart open and out facing the world. Big sister Este really got Kidman’s face down, her jaw clenched and eyes squeezed shut as if she’s trying to wake herself up from a nightmare. Obviously, it’s wrong to pit women, to say nothing of sisters, against one another, but Este walks away with this one. Better luck on the next meme-related album art to Danielle and Alana.
This image, working in tandem with the word relationships, suggests that maybe one or more Haim is going through it.
There are few people making music right now having more fun than Haim, which is the one thing the sisters wants you to know about them at any given time. Their voices are good and their production is always interesting — Rostam is working with them on this latest album — but the continued appeal of the band is their willingness to be silly 80 percent of the time. Haim does goofy dances. Haim does skits with Taylor Swift. Their comedy is not baked into the fabric of their music — though it’s not altogether humorless — but it’s an essential part of what makes them such a valued band on the pop landscape. They’re not taking anything too seriously except for the quality of what they put out into the world. Beyond that, they like to hang out with one another and they like to party. What’s more is that their sense of humor doesn’t seem to be any kind of put-on. They’re genuinely funny and just online enough to know how to make meme-able song art count for something.
Haim’s boppy last album, Women in Music, Pt. III, was a pandemic project, and the group has been pretty quiet since then, with the exception of Alana popping up in Licorice Pizza. If their newest album art out of the Haim-verse means anything outside of its point of reference, it could be that the sisters are emerging from the cold, walking out fresh-faced into the sunlight with a new sound ahead of them. The brief snippet on Instagram indicates “Relationships” includes their signature combination of playful rage, petty annoyance, and sweet revenge. Hopefully, the song makes it to Nicole Kidman — she might really like it.