I quit

I Quit hardly shows a seam. If anything, it’s further proof that HAIM is the most thrillingly versatile band working today.

‘I quit’ doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel and most of, if not all, the HAIM staples are here: biting satire, tongue-in-cheek takedowns, and Southern-style guitars over a Los Angeles sunshine haze. But in parting with longtime producer and Danielle Haim’s former partner Ariel Rechtshaid (another addition to the list of many things that have been ‘quit’), the sisters have opened up new doors.

The record is their longest to date, but rarely does it lag, holding a steady momentum across its 15 tracks with sneakily poignant lyrics and extremely catchy, hook-heavy instrumentation.

I quit may not reach the nuanced heights found in its predecessor, but the Haim sisters are definitely aiming to deepen their ideas and sharpen their perspective on this new record. .... In the end, HAIM have turned defeat into defiance, and it sounds like an epiphany.

“Gone” samples George Michael’s “Freedom! ’90”; “Down to Be Wrong” evokes the blistered euphoria of peak Sheryl Crow; “Now It’s Time,” for some goofy reason, borrows the industrial-funk groove from U2’s “Numb.” Nostalgia figures into the lyrics too, but it’s all very sharply drawn.

I Quit may not include a clear hit, like “The Wire” from Days Are Gone, but Haim remain perfectly in tune with their strongest assets.

“I Quit” pushes the sound of Haim’s 2020 album “Women in Music Pt. III” in a rootsier direction, with a foundation of raw, slightly lo-fi drums and guitars; now their allusions reach back to the 1960s, with echoes of vintage Rolling Stones and the Band.

On I quit, HAIM are unbound. It is brilliant, then wandering, then brilliant again; an imperfect, burning, compelling work.

If you wanted Haim to be a bit more of the rock band on record that they’ve always been on stage, this is a newly independent step back in that direction, along with all the more personal declarations of indie-pendence.

An album that takes a lot of creative swings – some of which don’t always connect, but is never less than entertaining. It acts as the perfect shake-up of Haim’s formula – still comfortably familiar, but one hinting at an intriguing new direction.

For all its promise that it never quite delivers on, I Quit is still another cool step in the band’s evolution – as well as a great way for fans to get their own step count up.

One could, incorrectly, mistake this for a Danielle Haim solo album: her lyrics pull no punches, and her voice is even more the band’s centre of gravity. But when Alana sings her first full lead vocal in the band’s discography, on the Arthur Russell-inspired disco cut ‘Spinning’, and Este takes the spotlight on the synth-country ballad ‘Cry’, they’re both revelations – vulnerable like they’ve never been before.

I Quit subtly pushes their boundaries. [Aug 2025, p.80]

I Quit is far more cohesive [than 2020's Women in Music Pt. III], a cathartic concept record on breakups and the hard-won independence you earn from them.

I Quit may not be the band at their peak, but it’s a necessary step to close one chapter of their career and find their way to the next. It leaves listeners with the sense that HAIM is going to rise from the ashes of what didn’t serve them, onto bigger and better things.

While HAIM's songwriting is more prominent here than it was on Something to Tell You, it shares that album's emphasis on vibe, and though detours like "Spinning"'s pastel '80s R&B are entertaining, other songs get lost in the shuffle.

I Quit is at its best when the trio juice up old tactics with a jolt of the new. [Aug 2025, p.31]

If Women in Music Pt. III cracked the door open, I quit stands in the threshold, taking stock of what's worth carrying forward.

I quit shows that HAIM will always make good music, and while this record doesn’t radically shift the formula, it reinforces their strengths: thoughtful songwriting, tight production, and seamless cohesion as a trio.

I quit starts so strong. .... A brutally honest edit might have reconsidered the more stylistically anonymous or lyrically thin concepts.

That the music on I Quit, particularly in its middle section, is often less dynamic than on HAIM’s previous releases makes the album’s lyrical shortcomings even harder to forgive. .... Though the journey there is rocky, I Quit ends with a roadmap of where HAIM could (and should) head next.

The mid-tempo results and on-the-nose lyrics can wear thin over 15 tracks, but Haim's melodic ease provides fitful featherweight uplift. [Jul 2025, p.104]