Haim have released a new song “Hallelujah,” and no, it’s not a Leonard Cohen cover. The sister trio dropped the song accompanied by a video directed by their frequent collaborator, Paul Thomas Anderson.
The stripped-down track was co-written by Tobias Jesso Jr. and produced by Ariel Rechtshaid, Rostam Batmanglij and Danielle Haim. The video opens with Danielle alone on a dark stage, playing acoustic guitar. “I met two angels but they were in disguise,” she sings, before she tosses a chair to Este, who takes over on lead vocals. Alana takes the final verse, before they join together for the chorus: “Why me? How’d I get this hallelujah?”
“To me it’s a song about relying on the people around you and reflecting on how different life could be if those people weren’t around,” Este Haim tweeted. The bassist, who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when she was 14, began writing the song after receiving terrible news from her endocrinologist. “Some diabetics go though what doctors call ‘diabetic burnout’ where the patient essentially stops taking care of themselves because it becomes too stressful, too time consuming, too frustrating to deal with day in and day out,” she said in a statement. “At the time I was feeling like type 1 diabetes was a 24-hour job that I wasn’t allowed to clock out of.”
“I came home from the doctor super upset and frustrated and the only two people I felt comfortable enough to talk about it with were Danielle and Alana,” she continued. “Sometimes it feels like they’re the only two people that truly understand me and support me when I feel like giving up. This song is for anyone struggling with chronic illness and the people around us who we truly rely on for help and guidance.”
The band recently teamed up with the Flaming Lips, Jack Black, Yo La Tengo and others for Hanukkah+, an album of Hanukkah classics and originals out November 22nd. The sister trio contributed a cover of Leonard Cohen’s “If It Be Your Will” from 1984’s Various Positions.
“Hallelujah” follows the new singles “Now I’m in It” and “Summer Girl.” The sister trio have yet to announce a new album.