Those Days Are Gone But I Still Feel Them
You’re running through a grassy field in a flowy dress with the sun kissing the back of your neck before you’re slammed into the corner of a dingy dive bar in leather pants with a guy whose name you don’t know. This has got to be all of us listening to Days Are Gone. Nostalgia rarely hits as hard as it does when HAIM’s debut album plays — and 10 years later, I’m feeling everything all over again.
I was a very different — and much younger — person when I first wrapped myself around this album. I was in high school, obsessed with Tumblr, fumbling around trying to find out who I was, clinging onto whatever felt right at the time. Days Are Gone felt like a lifeline, pulling me through the mud I thought I was sinking in. I could see the future the HAIM sisters painted for me.
10 Years Of Days Are Gone
The mark of a truly timeless album, I think, is the ability for listeners to attach themselves to the music regardless of where they are in life. In 2013, Days Are Gone was my moodboard. In 2023, it’s my guidebook. Today, the album feels less like a manifestation and more of a mirror. I find myself relating more to the fleeting sense of love scattered throughout Days Are Gone, feelings I never fully understood in 2013.
This album has always felt like summer holidays to me; easy, floating, quick loves; hot restless nights; individualism, and putting yourself first. In ‘Honey & I’ and ‘Go Slow’ you’re transported to bright sunny expanses, humid California nights, and scenes of a glittery night sky. You find glimmers of Joni Mitchell, The Beach Boys, Fleetwood Mac, and The Mamas & The Papas in Days Are Gone, but you never lose HAIM with their signature rock-pop edge.
The album’s title track, ‘Days Are Gone’, is severely underrated. “Cause you can have my past, I’ll never have that back” shoots like an arrow through my chest; I gave so much to people who didn’t deserve it.
Of course, we can’t talk about Days Are Gone without a shoutout to ‘The Wire’. “Always keep your heart locked tight/Don’t let your mind retire” is the warning I wish I heeded. But that’s the beauty of Days Are Gone: you see your mistakes but you also see your way forward; just dust yourself off and carry on as the cool girl you’re destined to be.
In 2013, I needed an escape. Maybe that’s why I put so much of myself into Days Are Gone. “I hear the voices/And they’re calling for me now/I know” the sisters sing on ‘Falling’, as I projected a future far away from where I was. “I’ll never look back, never give up,” and “I can feel the heat but I’m not burning,” are lines that’ll always make me smile, knowing that I made it out.
HAIM Are All Of Our Sisters
HAIM have always been the coolest girls in music. They were just so different. Back in 2013, it was all about pop and rap. Artpop, Prism, Bangerz, and Yours Truly were released alongside Yeezus, The Marshall Mathers LP 2, and Nothing Was The Same. A female band traversing through pop rock, indie rock, R&B, indie pop, and soft rock on their debut stood out like a sore thumb. In doing so, they inspired the next generation of female musicians. You can hear flashes of HAIM in Maggie Rogers’ — who opened for them on their Sister Sister Sister tour in 2018 — Heard It In A Past Life, in MUNA, and in King Princess’ music. Dare I say you can hear the same ’70s,’80s, and ’90s influences in Bleacher’s albums.
10 Years Later, HAIM Are Still The Coolest Girls Around
HAIM may not see the commercial success of Days Are Gone again, but I’m not sure it matters. In 2017 the sisters released Something To Tell You, a severely underrated body of work. The sisters built on their authentic sound but felt more reflective and dove deeper into the pains of relationships.
Then came the masterpiece that is Women In Music Pt III. Released in 2020, Women In Music Pt III is a poignant analysis of the music industry at large and the criticisms they face as women navigating it. It’s fitting then, that with this record, HAIM made history as the first all-female rock band to be nominated for Album of the Year at the Grammys.
On the surface, Days Are Gone will forever remind me of the days of Tumblr, Lana Del Rey, Lorde, The Hunger Games, and cool California girl imagery. But underneath I feel the sun’s warmth in the record. I still feel it pulling me into the different worlds HAIM introduced me to, for the very first time, back in 2013. I feel nostalgic for the person who wished for the life I’m living now. Filled with endless summers and late nights.
Long live Days Are Gone. Long live sisterhood.
Ky is a proud Kamilaroi and Dharug person and writer at Junkee. Follow them on Instagram or on X.
Image credit: Days Are Gone, Haim