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HAIM – Summer Girl (Official Video)

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HAIM traded the pastel and dance moves for winter coats they can’t wait to shed, and the result is the most personal thing the band has ever put to tape.

On July 31, 2019, the Haim sisters released “Summer Girl,” their first new song since 2017’s Something to Tell You, alongside a black-and-white video directed by longtime collaborator Paul Thomas Anderson. Rather than leaning on the usual summer-video signifiers, the clip follows Danielle, Este, and Alana Haim shedding heavy trench coats, sweaters, and scarves piece by piece as they walk the streets of Los Angeles, trailed the entire time by a saxophonist blowing the track’s central brass line.

• The single is co-produced by Ariel Rechtshaid, Danielle’s partner, and Rostam Batmanglij, who reportedly wrote the saxophone hook in a matter of minutes.
• Danielle Haim says she began writing the song while touring, after Rechtshaid was diagnosed with testicular cancer, describing the track as an attempt to be his “sunshine” during a dark stretch.
• HAIM debuted “Summer Girl” live earlier in July 2019 at an intimate Los Angeles show before announcing plans to roll out new songs individually as they finish them, rather than waiting on a full album.

A Video Built Around Undressing, Not Dancing

Anderson’s concept strips the song down to one repeated visual idea: the sisters walking, coat by coat, sweater by sweater, until they’re down to lightweight summer clothes. There’s no crew of backup dancers and no detour to a landmark hot dog stand — just three sisters, a moving camera, and that saxophonist keeping pace behind them. It’s the same director who shot HAIM’s “Little of Your Love” video in 2017, and the band has said repeatedly they’ll work with him whenever he’ll have them.

The Walk on the Wild Side Blueprint

Musically, “Summer Girl” borrows its DNA directly from Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side” — the loping upright bass, the laid-back acoustic strum, the “doo doo doo” vocal answer that mirrors Reed’s own backing singers. It’s a deliberate homage rather than a sample, filtered through Rechtshaid and Batmanglij’s production, and it gives the song a loose, unhurried feel that’s a departure from the tighter pop structures on Something to Tell You.

Danielle’s Reason for Writing It

The song’s warmth carries real weight once you know the backstory. Danielle Haim wrote it while on tour, in the period after Rechtshaid’s testicular cancer diagnosis, trying to find a way to be present for him from the road.

“Whenever I would come home in between shows I wanted to be his sunshine — his summer when he was feeling dark. His hope when he was feeling hopeless.”

That’s a heavier origin than the breezy visuals suggest, and it’s the kind of detail that separates HAIM from a lot of acts who’d rather keep their public persona tidy and vague. Here, the sisters let the hardship show through in the writing even while the video stays playful.

Debuting It Live First

HAIM didn’t just drop “Summer Girl” cold — they played it live at a small Los Angeles show earlier in July 2019 before the single or video ever went up. It’s the kind of raw, in-the-room rollout that stands in contrast to acts who’ve been caught lip-syncing on live TV; HAIM wanted the song road-tested with an actual crowd first.

The band has said this won’t be a one-off — they’re planning to release new material song by song as each one gets finished, rather than sitting on a batch for a proper album rollout. So the next drop, whenever it lands, will likely arrive the same way “Summer Girl” did: no advance campaign, just a song and a Paul Thomas Anderson video showing up on a Wednesday afternoon.