Few bands have perfected the anxiety anthem like HAIM, who made mental health crises sound stellar on their previous album Women In Music Pt. III—see: “I Know Alone,” “I’ve Been Down,” “Now I’m In It.” Seems their upcoming fourth record, which doesn’t yet have a title or a release date, will continue to refine the form. See: their new single “Everybody’s Trying To Figure Me Out.”
The newly released track, dropped on Friday, has a loose Cali-rock sound á la The Red Hot Chili Peppers. The lyrics, however, are tightly wound with the tension of trying to manage other people when managing yourself is overwhelming enough. As lead singer Danielle Haim intones in trance-like repetition over the end of the track, “You think you’re gonna die, but you’re not gonna die.” Previewing the song on social media, Haim said it was her “favorite song we’ve written in the last couple years” and that “writing it has gotten me through some hard times.”
“Everybody’s Trying To Figure Me Out” is the second song the trio of Danielle, Este, and Alana Haim have shared from their upcoming album after the lead single “Relationships.” The cheeky single artwork from both songs mimic iconic paparazzi shots: “Relationships” recreated that Nicole Kidman photo, while “Everybody’s Trying To Figure Me Out” looks like an early 2000s Kate Moss pic. The sisters share writing credits on the track with co-producer Rostam Batmanjili and Justin Vernon (a.k.a. Bon Iver, who featured Danielle on his own recently released album).
“I started writing this after a panic attack I had the night I got home from tour. I was very confused because I was SO SO SO happy about our incredible tour, but something about being alone with myself scared the shit out of me,” Danielle shared. “[After] a lot of reflecting I realized I’ve let a lot of people try and tell me how I should live my life, but I realized in making everyone else happy, I lost myself. I wrote this as a way to believe in myself again and quit being scared to do what I want. I hope this finds anyone who needs it.”
