The Problem With... HAIM

Now this column's taken a bit of a break, but let's be honest. so has the site. We've had a bit of a reshuffle in terms of editorial and we're optimistic about how this is going to affect the site and the quality of content you'll be receiving from us.
Anyway, you won't have failed to notice the rise of HAIM recently; so Braden questioned the problem with them.

Regardless of whether you consider a band to be the real deal, a genuine article or a label constructed act; HAIM are the new family band on the block. The Fleetwood Mac comparisons are too simple whereas the Osmond’s created music just a bit too on the cheesy side to be these three sisters.

In the same month as CHVRCHES, the 1975 and London Grammar released their debut records, HAIM follow on the wave of new acts releasing their ‘hyped first’ and proved to be one of the only acts capable of maintaining the wave of adoration though its release. The1975 were accused of being too shiny, London Grammar featured just a bit too much fat surrounding the meaty singles on the record and CHVRCHES’ corner of niche proved to be a Marmite of a record which mostly hung on whether you found tracks that didn’t have Lauren singing on them to be as entertaining as the likes of the insanely catchy Gun and The Mother We Share.

Haim though, they stuck to the formula; perhaps too tightly. Putting 2/3 of the tracks from their debut EP felt a lot on the lazy side whilst the little leaks of music in between in the form of singles Falling, Don’t Save Me and The Wire and in the form of Spotify/iTunes sessions etc  Honey & I and even Let Me Go feel somewhat familiar. That left almost none of the remaining tracks to be a surprise. Days Are Gone was always going to be a #1 album because we, the audience already knew what it sounded like. It doesn’t diminish the quality of the record, but it sure as heck takes away the entertainment of putting on an album and hearing a host of tracks for the first time. In fact, just four of the eleven were new to many upon first play and whilst I may be an old romantic fart on the topic; that took away some of the romance. That said, the remaining four tracks were co-written by Simian’s James Ford, Jessie Ware and Ariel Rechtshaid of Usher, Vampire Weekend and Major Lazer production fame so the only surprise really is that these are possibly the worst tracks on the record.

Days Are Gone then is an Up To Now. A collection of tracks that Haim knew would be successful based on their history as an act. I mean, they had relative success as Valli Girls and the Forever EP was insanely popular. The family band have the formula for success, and whilst album two must seem like quite a while away considering how much they’ll tour Days Are Gone, at least they didn’t have to do much writing to complete this record.

Braden Fletcher

The Problem With … The Charts

Week two of Braden's column and whilst we still don't understand all of the pop-culture references from last week, he's promised that this week is slightly less confusing. At a quick glance, it seems that nothing's really changed but we'll see as he takes on the charts.

 From time to time, you’ll hear most music fans complain about the charts, say they don’t matter and/or later be surprised when their favourite artist makes the UK Top 40. We can throw the word ‘rigged’ around all we like but until that’s proved it has to be assumed that yes, there are that many people out there willing to forgive Simon Cowell for manipulating phone-lines, Pitbull for manipulating people into finding him talented or Chris Brown for manipulating the face of a young lady.

 Five years ago, you’d have found the worst offenders of these double standards sneakily hiding Limewire from their desktop and telling you how much their download didn’t matter in the grander scheme of things. Then came the Christmas Chart Battle of 2009 in which a Facebook campaign by Jon Morter led to Rage against the Machine going to the number one spot against The X Factor’s Joe McElderry. Not only was it a shock to the charts, but also it outlined that there’s still a place for ‘the alternative’ at the top of the charts when fans group together. It’s for this reason that ‘fringe’ artists such as Arcade Fire, White Lies and the XX have all had chart-topping records without once breaking the top 10 singles charts. Even Mumford & Sons have had a number one record without touching that golden half hour of radio on the UK Top 40's top 10.
One way to describe the alternative music scene to someone who doesn't understand where all the bands at Glastonbury they've never heard of came from, is in the style of drugs.
The majority of people stick away from them, preferring cigarettes and alcohol (Adele and One Direction for example); but many of us have a cheeky puff on a Foo Fighter every now and then. A tough shift at work or a chilled night of gaming could easily lend itself to a Dave Grohl special and let’s face it, he’s pretty unavoidable at major festivals.

That’s where most of us stop but others dabble further into different worlds, finding their niche; whether it be a Sigur Ros-hole, a tab of Tame Impala or a quick line of James Blake, the more you take, the further you go down the rabbit hole.
This is where you’ll find the route of complaints. You’ll hear my mate John from time ask why all the kids are listening to Alt-J whilst Dirty Projectors’ latest album only reached number seventy in the charts.
“They sound pretty much the same to me” he’ll say, staring like a puppy wanting the answer to be as simplistic as possible. Sadly John, there is no real reason or formula to define what will be successful. Much of it has to do with the way you market yourself (see Bastille and their mixtapes), the amount of years you’ve put in behind the scenes (see Frank Turner’s decade long solo career) and just having that right audible and visual aesthetic at the right time (see CHVRCHES and the1975.)

Honestly though, there’s no way to guarantee success, unless rumours about Coldplay’s secret blueprints are to be believed; but until we can all shout “FIX” and hope sure that Ant and/or Dec are there to verify the numbers, it’s probably not even worth contemplating that there may be a magic formula behind what makes people part with their money in order to own music. The only thing to do is make music from the heart and hope that your blood is as addictive as recreational drugs, or better still, Jack Daniels.

Braden Fletcher

Update: Icona Pop just went number one in the singles charts, we can all be happy for a week, even if Tom Odell did also go straight to the top in the albums chart,

The Problem With... Yeezus

 Once a week, Braden will be writing a new column for Sound Influx. Most weeks, it will be entitled ‘The Problem With’ and will feature a certain aspect of what’s been going on in music and culture recently. He’s described it to us as Ten O’Clock Live for a music website but he also describes burritos as family. It’s probably best if we let him take it from here with his first piece (which we’re dubious of) on Yeezus.

When your name is Kanye West certain things are true that are not if you’re my friend John Edwards. Most noticeable of these things will of course be that John isn’t an internationally famous, controversial, millionaire hip-hop icon; John works in a high street store in Leeds and he’s most famous for winning the pub quiz a few weeks back. It’s safe to say that John’s claim that he was a God that night was false.

Kanye West however, in his sixth album has passed through his registration, graduation and his ascension to the fantasy world via a short film in which he meets an angel and is now a higher power himself. To him, the shouts of “Illuminati” and “conspiracy” aren’t so much unfounded as they are insulting to his status as a deity. With all of the hype, THAT interview and the resulting online pandemonium, the focus has been as much on the music as it has been the character (and he is most definitely a character) that created it.

As such, that is both the problem and the genius of Yeezus. Most conversation requires mutual knowledge. If you were to attempt to talk to the cast of Made in Chelsea about the current problems in Syria, it’s doubtful that they’d be able to fully engage. Similarly if you were to try talk to a Syrian about how Jamie (the one that looks like the Milky Bar kid but is actually a McVitties kid) and the blonde one that looks exactly like his twin but actually fancies him, had a talk about ‘them’, they’d rightly tell you to go away. Kanye West’s sixth record doesn’t require this. At its core, there’s an album, which features some of Yeezy’s best and most average work. Surrounding that, however is an entire world of discussion, a surface level of heated debate and an atmosphere in which the omniscient Kanye West himself views it all from next to Miss Kardashian and fellow Lord and Patrick Bateman impersonator Scott Dickstick. Incidentally the first track sounds like it was written by someone as tone deaf as a Kardashian, as if West allowed all of them at his MIDI pads at the same time and simply rapped over it (Daft Punk produced, sadly awful).  Not to bring it up again, but has Kanye listened to State of Grace? Now that’s quite the album opener (if pop mixed with loosely narrative country is your thing.)

Perhaps that’s what it’s all about though. Hooking the fish in with the hype, pulling them in with the controversy, slapping them in the face with On Sight and turning them into tasty sticks whilst declaring your divinity for the rest of the record. The problem with Yeezus is that you don’t need to listen to it beyond this point to know if you like it. The rest of the record is West being West. If you like him, you’ll most likely like this dip into darkness. If you don’t, you don’t have a choice; you’ll be subjected to his words and sounds regardless. Turn your phone off (and/or/don’t turn someone’s grandfather on) and take a walk. If you’re out in Leeds on a Tuesday morning, you might even catch my pub quiz team and I having a celebratory breakfast, demanding our croissants.

Braden Fletcher