SONG FOR THE MOMENT: HAIM - LOST TRACK

4/5

Pizza Delivery. 

PTA announcement. The classic California connection collaboration between the family friends of the best band in the world (yeah, I said it) Haim and master 'Magnolia' and 'Phantom Thread' director Paul Thomas Anderson (to 1970's California what 'The French Dispatch' director Wes Anderson is to the weird and wonderful) is back for a 'Lost Track' based on a lyric that lingered in Danielle Haim's mind like a cranberry finger or folded song in your back pocket. PTA and the sisterhood of Haim, the former Valley 'Valentine's' who used to cut extended studio takes together like there was 'Something To Tell You' have turned the viral music video back into an art form in this post-MTV generation. All for the best album of the quarantined and locked down year of 2020, 'Women In Music Pt. III' for all you wimps. It all sax started like a "doo, doo" Lou Reed. Walking on the wild side of downtown Los Angeles for the slow burning 'Summer Girl' anthem. Before cooling off in the car wash, coming out after a big break-up, 'Now I'm In It'. Then the real 'Hallelujah' came with an artistic hail Mary right before coronavirus crippled the calendar and pushed back Haim's schedule. Let alone their Hollywood music videos. Improvising themselves for a socially distant dance tutorial on a backyard basketball court for 'I Know Alone'. All before going for a footrace that Este won handily around the parking lot of the former home of the Los Angeles Lakers, the coliseum of the Great Western Forum. As the album finally dropped PTA reunion returned like a lost relative in this pandemic for the album cover like deli shop of 'Man From The Magazine' for all you "c###s!" But that wasn't it. Extra! Extra! Read all about it! 

W Mag is as stylish as they come when it comes to high press. And recently on an award tour it's been promoting this seasons stars in a collection of creative ways for your consideration. Alana Haim has gone From Baby Haim to arguably now the most famous face of this big-three. Thanks to the Oscar nominated 'Licorice Pizza' directed by Mr. Anderson. "I'm going to put you in a movie one day" PT told the youngest Haim. Little did Alana know that her powerful performance would be worthy of nomination amongst the legendary likes of Jessica Chastain ('The Eyes Of Tammy Faye') and music majesty, reborn as a movie star, Lady Gaga ('House Of Gucci'). And in her first movie too, like her co-star Cooper Hoffman as Gary Valentine. Son of the late, great and friend of Paul, Philip of 'The Master' fame. Worthy of all the proase too, even if he can't pronounce Barbara Streisand's name right in front of a glib and Gibb looking Bradley Cooper. Hey I'm guilty of that too. This sweet slice is no extended Haim video. Alana is amazing and a matter of fact the PTA, Haim videos themselves are almost like mini-movies. And the pure magic of the latest one, may be the best yet. Following their 'Cherry Flavoured Stomach Ache' from 'The Last Letter From Your Lover' for Netflix's soundtrack. A lost track about losing track of things like time, down the line. Turning a cut that could have been a B-Side into one of their best yet from the beginnings of its seventies LA, atmospheric keys. All the way to its burning playing card for these Queen of hearts with quite a hand to play.

Southern California shooting portrait pictures of these sisters for the magazine feature, Thomas Anderson decided to film a music video for this 'Lost Track' that really feels like something honed from Hollywood land's bygone era. Not cut together in one cool afternoon in the hills. Decked out in the finest phantom threads taking to the linoleum in a function room with the only group of women that can cut a rug better than these three that once shut down the roads of these City Of Angels just to tell someone they wanted them back like a Jackson 5 family affair. These steps belong to the knockout 'Balboa Ladies Society' at the Annual Balboa Gold Rush, hitting exactly that paydirt as Danielle dances inbetween them like a cipher. Skirt hiking and foot stomping or the beat. As this Dani California knocks over glasses and pushes rudely between her sisters. Doing it for herself like the time she poured coffee all over the customers counter between half-smiles and scolding scowls on 'Now I'm In It'. This Fashion Bazaar formulated by Paul Thomas Anderson is just the ticket, like taking your best dress out the plastic and off the dry cleaning rack. Honouring the San Fernando Valley women and their 1950's social club activities. In a shower of flowers and weddings all for Baby. Teeing off in Balboa's golf course restaurant and swinging big like today's special. Between Monterey and Encino, this is a banquet featuring a whole host of family and friends. Including Anderson's partner, comedy actor showstopper Maya Rudolph (did you see Minnie Riperton's daughter rip it up to the delight of Bill Murray in Sofia Coppola's Carlyle quarantined like a Park Hyatt, Tokyo 'Lost In Translation', as she begegd you to please come home for 'A Very Murray Christmas'?) and their daughter Pearl Anderson. Anderson and Alan's sisters all have a piece of 'Pizza' too. Making this licorice rope reaching video all the more amazing in its aesthetic, traditional texture and bonds of beautiful family feeling. All as Danielle sings, "Deepest cut that I can’t feel/Found a grip on the steering wheel/I know a piece’s stuck/You can sit down if you don’t mind me standin’ up (Mind me standin’ up)/I know I was too good to pass (Too good to pass)/So me and you caused a chain reaction (Chain reaction)/I’ll take the smallest crumb/But I’ll never get back what I lost track of." Taking the classic microphone and running around with these socialites on this grand parade. This isn't an old song reheated the next morning like pizza. It's the red rope of something that really pulls as you snap take a bite out of it. When lost tracks become found, the song you wear on your heart like the gamble of three Queens becomes your greatest gambit. And the winners are. Check the envelope propped up next to the flower arrangement place setting. The seat at the table is theirs to dance around like musical chairs. They're in their own Academy now. TIM DAVID HARVEY.