Women in Music, Pt. III

The Haim sisters might very well be responsible for why the clarion call of soft rock will, and should, never go silent. Their third album -- featuring bouncy, joyfully tactile production by former Vampire Weekender Rostam Batmanglij, stirs around its Doobies and Carpenters until we’re left with a stew of old and new, where the past is treated reverently but never cheaply. A rootsy cry for relationship equity (“The Steps”), a skittering electro-bummer ode to numb weekends (“I Know Alone”), and enough honking saxes and hand claps to deliver a ridiculously solid crowdpleaser with a necessary mean streak.