[Shaun]

No, Nicky.

Compared to their previous ("Something to Tell You", which was... just dull) this was fantastic, but in the grand scheme of things I'm not completely blown away. HAIM have always toed the line between satisfying pop and chillwave indie and never really committed fully to either angle, and it can be a bit of an underwhelming experience at times. Sometimes I wish they'd go full "Pray to God" with Calvin Harris again.

BUT... this was a very enjoyable listen and something with plenty of stand-outs beyond the early singles. "Another Try" is a funky, brassy number and should soundtrack summer perfectly, whilst "The Steps" gets better with every listen. "Leaning On You" feels incredibly Vampire Weekend (which makes sense, since two bandmates produced this/are dating one of the sisters), but also quite folksy and something that'd go down very well at Glastonbury. They even channel a little bit of Joni Mitchell on "Man from the Magazine".

I think I'd have to give the album a solid 8 and not a drop more; it might have been a little too long, "I've Been Down" was super repetitive and uninteresting, and it's also slightly silly to release a summer song, called "Summer Girl", and then wait a whole damn year to put the album out the following summer. SILLY. But I liked this a lot.

This makes 5 reviews at the moment but I shall allow any latecoming scores to the result. As things stand, HAIM score 72.

As for the next album? Well... I said I was open to suggestions and - since there's nothing out this week that will interest TiBB (Paul Weller? Willie Nelson? I don't think), I am more than happy to take Samm's suggestion of Jessie Ware. So that's what it shall be!