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Single girl summer is upon us — and what better way to usher in the season than new Haim music? Well, the Haim sisters have an answer: album artwork inspired by some of the most famous celebrity paparazzi shots from the early aughts. It’s quite the perfect nod for the Los Angeles rockers.
It started with an iconic reference to an equally iconic picture from pop culture history. For the release of lead single “Relationships,” Haim recreated the 2001 candid of Nicole Kidman walking down a nondescript Hollywood street, basking in the L.A. sun with a look of absolute relief on her face. As legend has it, the photo was snapped right after Kidman signed divorce papers, officially shutting the chapter on her marriage to Tom Cruise.
For their take, photographed by Terrence O’Connor, all three Haim sisters (Danielle, Este, and Alana) are seen smiling and walking down what appears to be the same California pavement that Kidman skipped across. It’s a wonderful visual representation of how much Haim “can’t stand fuckin’ relationships” and want to be unburdened by the expectations they come with. While Kidman set the record straight and claimed the picture was actually from the set of a movie (one she did not name), the lore behind the original shot has long outshone the (potential) truth. And there’s nothing that sums up newfound freedom like finally ridding yourself of a toxic relationship and skipping down the street with glee, so we’ll choose to believe it.
Haim has kept the references coming. The artwork for their new single “Everybody’s Trying to Figure Me Out” also emulates yet another shot of an early paparazzi favorite and “It” girl: Kate Moss. In November 2000, Moss was spotted in rare form when the trendsetting supermodel was photographed leaning against a black SUV, soaking up some rays (sunglasses in her hands, rather than on her face) with windswept hair and a simple, striped long-sleeve shirt on. To make the picture even stranger, the backseat door of the car is open and another backseat passenger’s leg is just barely visible. It’s almost as if Moss simply had to pull over and take in the sunshine for a second. (Relatable.)
Something about Moss taking a moment to herself, and being captured doing so by paparazzi, clearly spoke to the Haim sisters. They recreated this image, again with the help of O’Connor, with Danielle imitating Moss, while Este’s face and, supposedly, Alana’s knee linger in the backseat of the car. In an Instagram post about the new song, Danielle wrote, “Writing it has gotten me through some hard times, and we felt this might be of some use to get our vibes right for this summer… 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.”
After Haim continued the trend for “Everybody’s Trying to Figure Me Out,” some fans online speculated which paparazzi-worthy moment from the 2000s the sisters would reimagine next. Now, the band is back at it again with their third single, “Down to Be Wrong.” While the album artwork for the first two singles emulated sunny dispositions of famous actors, the artwork for “Down to Be Wrong” is much cheekier with its imitation. Inspired by the truly hilarious moment from 2004 in which Jared Leto was caught checking his phone as he engaged in some serious PDA with Scarlett Johanssen, Danielle recreates the moment, taking the role of Johanssen. But this time, Danielle is the one checking out and checking her phone in the middle of an embrace. It’s truly icon behavior.
It was surprising when Haim finally announced their fourth album, I Quit, and the album artwork didn’t explicitly reference an early-aughts pap shot of a celebrity. Instead, the band chose shots from an original photoshoot with filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson, who directed the band’s film debut in Licorice Pizza.
But not to fret, for their latest single, “Take Me Back,” Haim has returned to form. This time, the band is referencing a 2004 photo of actors Kiera Knightly and Jamie Dornan, back when both U.K. teens briefly dated and captured the zeitgeist with their effortless outfits and intertwined limbs. In the paparazzi photo, the pair is walking arm-and-arm, inextricably linked as they rock their slouchy indie style. For the “Take Me Back” single artwork, Haim created a time portal back to 2004 with uber-low rise jeans and scarves. While there wasn’t a third person in the original photo, Este’s chill demeanor and equally low-rise jeans fit right in. It’s notably the first paparazzi picture they reference that’s not set in L.A., but that doesn’t change the impact at all. In the comments section of their Instagram post sharing the artwork, one fan summarized the picture perfectly: “Me when I’m the coolest band in the world giving the best visuals ever.”
There’s less than a month before the release of I Quit, but we can only hope for another single with aughts-inspired paparazzi shots as the artwork. Will it be the infamous photo of Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, and Lindsay Lohan driving together, or maybe a picture of that time Drew Barrymore and Cameron Diaz carried a bottle of champagne through the streets of New York City? (I know, not L.A.). Whatever it may be, it’s sure to invoke the golden-hued liberation of summer.
