Haim – Summertime Sadness

Haim returns with an album begging you to sob on the dance floor with it.

- By Hunter Harris

IN JUNE 2019, the members of Haim—sisters Este, 34, Danielle, 31, and Alana, 28—had invited the director Paul Thomas Anderson to come by the studio to hear a demo of “Summer Girl,” a sweetly buoyant declaration of love. The song plays with the doo-doo-doos of Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side” but with a romantic breathiness; a saxophone meanders through the middle, sensuously. Ariel Rechtshaid, Danielle’s partner and the band’s producer, was diagnosed with cancer during the making of Haim’s second album, and “Summer Girl” was her way of conjuring a brighter future. The song didn’t have a bridge, and it still needed some tinkering, but Anderson insisted they shoot the music video that Saturday. “PTA was like, ‘We should shoot something for this like tomorrow,’ ” Alana recalls. “We were like, ‘Tomorrow?’ ‘Tomorrow.’ ”

The women weren’t thinking about releasing an album or putting out singles. They’d just wanted Anderson to hear a song they liked. He filmed the video over two days in the San Fernando Valley and Hollywood with one camera and no permits. A saxophonist follows the trio as they take off sweaters and winter coats, stripping down to brightly colored tops, denim cutoffs, and skirts. It was the fastest they’d ever worked on one song. There was a half-second of hesitation where they wondered whether it should be released so quickly. “We were like, ‘Let’s fucking put it out now!’ ” Alana continues. “We had zero plans for what was going to happen after that.” She adds matter-of-factly, “It’s summer and it’s called ‘Summer Girl.’ ”