Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Days Are Gone is the debut album by Los Angeles Rock band Haim and with the soothing whisper of an ethereal essence, the three sisters introduce themselves onto a public that should be ready to take them to their hearts.

Debut albums can go one of two ways, they can be immediately attention grabbing, grasping out to the listener’s musical gear box and forcing a change of mood as the stakes are raised in musical appreciation or the album becomes unloved straightaway, its destiny to end up in a charity shop discount bin and there to wallow until someone comes along and takes pity on the loathed musical offering. Very rarely does an album require a few goes as the thought of it is akin to a slow burner, the music equivalent of watching the 1988 F.A. Cup Final, something that on the surface may have taken a seemingly agonising amount of time to get going but is now remembered for being a thrill fest.

Days Gone By falls into that third category, it’s well worth having in the collection but it seems to take an interminable age for the C.D. to know its fate is amongst your music pool and not to gather dust on the shelves in the back of a charity shop.

There are clever moments from the off that catch the ear, the allusion to Fleetwood Mac is well publicised but there are tinges of the Eagles in there too, even if the subtle tones of Glen Frey and Don Henley are far apart, the influences are there, the sound of the urban jungle mixed enticingly with the inspiration of the wilderness that surrounds the West-Coast city is there if the listener takes it upon themselves to search for it.

It might take a few plays, your finger might hover the eject button a couple of times in need of solace but hang in there, it is worth it and in tracks such as The Wire, If I Could Change Your Mind, the title track Days Are Gone and the superb Let Me Go, the eject button is given what it deserves, a rest from being pressed.

Ian D. Hall