Recommended tracks: “all over me,” “spinning,” “everybody’s trying to figure me out”
Artists you may like: MUNA, Alanis Morrisette, Lorde
In their fourth studio album, I quit, 818 valley heroes the HAIM sisters Danielle, Este and Alana are back, and this time they’re finally saying the two words we all fantasize about yelling in the face of a toxic relationship, a dead-end job, or just a life that doesn’t feel like ours anymore: I quit.
But don’t let the title fool you, this isn’t an album about surrender. It’s about release. It’s about power. It’s about ripping the duct tape off your heart and letting it beat however the hell it wants. I quit is HAIM’s most unleashed record to date, and it arrives like a mic drop after years of quiet compromise. Quitting here doesn’t mean giving up; it means finally choosing yourself.
Written and produced while all three sisters were single for the first time since high school, the album is steeped in a raw kind of autonomy. As Alana puts it, “Every single song has a theme of quitting something that isn’t working for us anymore.” That idea pulses through every drumbeat, synth riff, and throat-punched lyric like a heartbeat saying, you can walk away and still win.
You can feel the 90s alt-rock ghosts floating around these tracks a la Jewel, Alanis, Fiona; but instead of haunted nostalgia, HAIM makes it feel like rebirth. It’s the soundtrack for the ex- too-cool-for-school girl who used to smoke cigarettes behind the gym who’s now in her thirties and finally okay with not having it all figured out. It’s the music you’d steal from your older sister’s CD wallet, the kind that makes you fall in love with falling in love with music itself.
Opener “Gone” kicks down the door with George Michael harmonies and a thundering confidence that sounds like it was recorded with a middle finger held high. “Now I’m gone / Quick as a gunshot / Born to run,” Alana howls, and you believe her — not just that she’s leaving, but that she should.
Then there’s “Relationships,” the sleek, slow-burning R&B-tinged single that started as a plane ride demo and morphed into their most-streamed track to date. It’s a sobering mirror: “Am I staying in this thing that isn’t right for me, just because it’s safe and comfortable?” they ask. And the answer, of course, is no, I quit.
The album’s spine is made of these moments: “All Over Me” is sexy and unapologetic in its hunger, while “Down to Be Wrong” is about choosing yourself even if it means someone else gets hurt. “I quit feeling sorry for choosing myself,” Alana says, a lyric, a manifesto, and honestly, a future tattoo.
And then there’s “Now It’s Time.” The album closer is a juggernaut that starts as an industrial whisper and ends in full-blown catharsis — a HAIM-style bonfire of emotion and rhythm that says: you made it, babe. Now dance.
But the beauty of I quit is that it never once feels heavy-handed. There’s playfulness here too, a cheeky defiance that only comes from people who’ve earned their scars and still show up in glitter. “There was a strong sense of playfulness to this album,” says Alana, and it shows. Not just in the sonic experimentation, but in the emotional freedom. They’re not chasing radio hits. They’re not writing to fit a mold. They’re just being the band they always wanted to be.
There’s a moment, somewhere between the stomp of “Try to Feel My Pain” and the sticky shimmer of “Take Me Back” where I realized: this album isn’t about quitting anything really. It’s about returning to yourself. And maybe that’s the most rock n’ roll thing HAIM’s ever done.
So if you’re looking for a sign — to leave the job, the guy, the old version of yourself — HAIM already found it for you. Two words, 15 songs, one message: Quit everything. Take back what’s yours.
HAIM are heading out on the I Quit Tour this fall, bringing their most unapologetic album yet to major stages across North America with support from Dora Jar. Get all the dates, ticket info, and more right here.
