Something to Tell You

Something to Tell You
Studio album by Haim
Released	July 7, 2017 (2017-07-07)
Studio	Valentine Recording Studios, Valley Village, Los Angeles, California Ariel Rechtshaid's studio, Burbank, California
Genre	Pop rock[1]
Length	42:34
Label	Polydor
Producer	Haim (exec.) Ariel Rechtshaid BloodPop Rostam Batmanglij George Lewis Jr.[2]
Haim chronology
Days Are Gone (2013) Something to Tell You (2017)
Singles from Something to Tell You
"Want You Back" Released: May 3, 2017[3] "Little of Your Love" Released: June 18, 2017 "Nothing's Wrong[4]" Released: August 21, 2017

Something to Tell You is the second studio album by American pop rock band Haim. It was released on July 7, 2017, by Polydor Records.^[5][6] The album's lead single, "Want You Back", was released on May 3, 2017.^[3] On May 10, the album cover was revealed, along with the preorder announcement.^[7] "Little of Your Love" was then announced as the second single on June 18, 2017, via Twitter.

Background and recording

Haim toured for two years to support their previous release, Days Are Gone, the three sisters' 2013 debut album that was met with a great deal of critical and commercial success. With the conclusion of their tour came the beginning of the process of crafting Something to Tell You: "All we knew for two years was wake up, soundcheck, play the show, go to sleep and fit in a slice of pizza at some point. We needed to turn our brains from touring brains back to writing brains. When we came home, we literally got off the bus, took a nap and went right into the studio."^[8] The initial sessions for the album were unfruitful; the band questioned the quality of the songs, wondering if they were on par with the debut album. However, a breakthrough came after the producers of the 2015 Judd Apatow-directed romantic comedy Trainwreck asked the band to write a song to for the film's soundtrack. "Little of Your Love", the album's second single, was produced in under a week at the film producers' request, and although it was ultimately not selected for the soundtrack, completing the song gave the band the confidence they needed to write new material for the album.^[8]

In the following years, the band developed the album, taking breaks and continuing to perform at various shows and festivals, much of which would further inspire the album. The band switched between Valentine Studios, an infrequently used 1970's production facility in Valley Village (a neighborhood in Los Angeles, California), and producer Ariel Rechtshaid's home studio.^[8]

Promotion

"Want You Back" was released as the album's first single on May 3, 2017, and was followed a week later by the promotional single, "Right Now". On May 13, the band performed "Want You Back" along with "Little of Your Love" on Saturday Night Live.

They made their first UK appearance at BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend on May 27, performing "Want You Back" and "Right Now" as part of their set.^[9]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	70/100[10]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[11]
Clash	7/10[12]
Entertainment Weekly	A−[13]
The Guardian	[14]
Mojo	[15]
NME	[16]
Pitchfork	7.8/10[1]
Rolling Stone	[17]
Slant Magazine	[18]
Uncut	[19]

Something to Tell You has received a generally positive reception from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has an average score of 70 out of 100 based on 29 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable" reception.^[10]

Writing in Pitchfork, Jenn Pelly said, "No other rock band in popular music (an anomalous statement already) has mixed styles so seamlessly—rattling and gliding from one hook to another...Haim's latticed arrangements and heavily percussive melodies make their music fly."^[1] Pelly as well as several other reviewers stressed the influence of Stevie Nicks and other 1970s and '80s rock; in the Los Angeles Times, Mikael Wood said the album "makes you believe that rock might have a future," bearing "the polished sound of vintage Fleetwood Mac and the Eagles, and here the sisters continue to rely on guitars and the like at a moment when many of their peers have little use for them."^[20] In Rolling Stone, Jon Dolan said, "You can hear the studied sense of craft all over Something to Tell You...These songs don't always explode with the sunny ebullience of the first LP, but the melodies, beats and ideas are layered and piled high."^[17] In The Guardian, Kitty Empire writes, "Haim really know what they are doing. There are digressions to kill for here, what you might once have called middle eights, indefatigable melodies, and weird little noises – a horse neigh and a seagull coda on Want You Back, a fax machine on Found It in Silence, the gasping on Nothing’s Wrong – to keep you clamping your headphones to your ears in delight."^[14]

Commercial performance

Something to Tell You debuted at number seven on the US Billboard 200 with 32,000 album-equivalent units, of which 26,000 were pure album sales.^[21] It also debuted at number two on the UK Albums Chart, selling 18,319 copies in its first week.^[22]

Track listing

Notes

• ^{^[a]} signifies an additional producer

Personnel

Credits adapted from AllMusic.^[2]

Charts

Release history

References