Daylight savings, temperatures creeping upward, wool coats tossed aside for a light jacket: Spring is in the air, and with it, Haim season. The sisters may have spent weeks teasing the first single off their new album through several funny little videos and familiar-looking album art, but the tell-tale sign of new Haim music is when the weather gets good and people feel like acting up. It may always be warm in California, but Haim’s penchant for creating music specifically designed to be listened to in the car with the windows down has never felt more apparent than in their newest song, “Relationships.”
“How did we get ourselves into this?” Danielle Haim sings, more disdainful than saddened by the dissolution at the heart of the single. The song is full of existential questions like that, boiling down to a central thesis of “Why am I in this relationship?,” but rather than belabor romantic mistakes in a low-key ballad or mid-tempo jam, the sisters opt for a groovy, dancier track. It’s a decidedly sexier sound for them, more reminiscent of ’90s R&B than their usual So-Cal rock. Rostam Batmanglij may be partially responsible for this updated sound, as the Vampire Weekend alum and solo artist co-produced the new album alongside Danielle (who, somewhat coincidentally, recently split with Vampire Weekend producrr Ariel Rechtshaid … so maybe the titular relationships in question are all in the family, so to speak). While the sisters Haim frequently make lyrical pop-ish rock music, “Relationships” ups the ante by being the type of song that might drag you out of your chair and out onto the dance floor.
The new video, directed by Camille Summers-Valli, depicts Danielle alongside sisters Este and Alana, moving out of a house after a breakup with an unnamed beau played by Queer heartthrob Drew Starkey. The music video moves in reverse, starting with the sisters packing up the car, taking us back through Danielle’s ennui lying in bed alone, to whenever she and Starkey’s character first met, dancing at the club. Starkey makes for the perfect ex: somehow both doe-eyed and a jock. Whatever occurred between him and Danielle in the context of the video remains unclear, but Summers-Valli’s inclination to move in reverse allows the video to end on a real high note.
It’s the sisters’ first video not directed by Paul Thomas Anderson in some time, and Summers-Valli lends the song a fun innovative form that doesn’t let the whole thing become too self-serious or too funny. As hot as the video is at times, Summers-Valli maintains a strong female gaze, allowing the sisters to be both forces of romantic authority (or sisterly annoyance) as well as sex symbols, clad in neutral, athletic basics. It’s kind of giving Uniqlo ad in the best possible way. “So don’t let it bring you down,” Danielle warns toward the end of the song, “’cause it all comes back around.” So if you think about it, Haim summer is always both behind us and ahead of us: You just have to wait it out. In that way, “Relationships” feels like it’s moving both forward and backward at the same time, allowing the band to open new doors by indulging in an old sound we know and love.