Nostalgia-Wise, HAIM’s “Take Me Back” Shares Plenty in Common With Charli XCX and Troye Sivan’s “1999”

In the spirit of nostalgia as only a millennial can convey it (e.g., reviving Goosebumps in its TV series form or releasing another Final Destination installment), HAIM’s fourth single from I quit, “Take me back,” echoes many of the sentiments expressed on Charli XCX and Troye Sivan’s “1999” (released in 2018). For, like the Haim sisters, XCX (and even Sivan) is a millennial—try as Gen Z might to claim her as their own now that she’s suddenly on their radar post-Brat. Which is precisely why her references are distinctly tailored to that generation as she laments, “I just wanna go back, back to 1999/Take a ride to my old neighborhood/I just wanna go back/Sing, ‘Hit me, baby, one more time.’”

More than just the requisite Britney (the premier millennial spokesperson/voice of a generation) reference, XCX and Sivan make mention of MTV (then at the height of its TRL days) and “JTT.” Those latter initials might easily be mistaken, by some, for a reference to Justin “JT” Timberlake (which would make sense considering that 1999 was a peak year for *NSYNC), but, in actuality, Sivan is name-checking Jonathan Taylor Thomas, the preteen/teen heartthrob once adored by millennial suburbanites throughout the U.S. Perhaps this was the person selected only because Sivan needed a three-initial rhyme to go with “MTV.” Even though JTT’s apex in pop culture was in ‘94 and ’95 (not ’99), with the back-to-back releases of The Lion King (no matter that JTT’s actual face couldn’t be seen behind the animated lion cub, Simba), Man of the House and Tom and Huck. But, taking into account JT’s fall from grace following the revelations in Spears’ memoir, The Woman in Me, and his arrest for drunk driving in the late summer of ‘24, maybe the JTT reference truly was the better pick (even if not quite the more accurate one in terms of giving a snapshot of “the culture” in 1999). 

As for Danielle, Este and Alana, their means of invoking nostalgia on “Take me back” relates less to pop culture callouts and more to reminding fellow millennials how much simpler the 90s and 00s were despite still being tech-heavy decades. However, in respect to the way things are now, the tech of these eras seems so much more “innocent” (including MySpace) and, well, far less insidious. So it is that Danielle recalls a world where it was possible to not always be available (which is the present-day expectation due to having an internet-equipped phone strapped to one’s body at all times). This tugging at the heartstrings/making people remember that more carefree lifestyle is done immediately with the opening verse, “Kane called up ‘cause I wasn’t home/Daddy took a message, didn’t have a phone.” 

From the outset, too, the song’s instrumentation bears a certain similarity to Faces’ 1973 signature, “Ooh La La,” featuring that yearning chorus, “I wish that I knew what I know now when I was younger.” This subtle allusion builds on a long-standing musical tradition of singing about yearning for the past. And, more to the point, a past that can’t be re-created in the present. Danielle acknowledges that often depressing reality in the line, “All my lovers are locked in time.” By the same token, she’s also keenly aware that, “I can’t pretend I got where I got without changin’ in my mind” (note: she doesn’t mention changing in body…a.k.a. the Haim sisters would prefer to remain Nicole Kidman-esque in their eternal physical sameness). 

As for the further parallels to the Charli XCX school of songwriting (which, as XCX will admit, is just the Lou Reed school of songwriting), Haim keeps name-checking people they know throughout, including (the abovementioned) Kane, Alana, Billy St. Reams, Molly and David. In other words, names that are “insider-y” (like what XCX does on “360” and many other tracks from Brat). People from the past (and present), of course. All part of conjuring up memories of their preteen and adolescent years, which, painful or not, Danielle still insists, “Take me back/Take me back/I want it/Like I remember.” But then, that’s the thing about the past: people only remember it in such a way as to be able to romanticize the good aspects without considering the unpleasant ones. In the 90s and 00s, that would have, at a collective (rather than personal) level, extended to the way in which women could so easily be vilified by the media (e.g., Monica Lewinsky and Britney Spears). 

And, when taking into account that part of HAIM’s promotion for the album’s singles has involved referencing highly specific “feel-good” tabloid photos of the 00s, it appears they’ve chosen to stamp out all the worst elements of the culture at that time for the sake of putting 00s nostalgia on a pedestal. Which, to be fair, everyone—even non-millennials—has been guilty of in recent years. After all, how could anybody be blamed for wanting to be “taken back” in a climate like this (literally and figuratively)? 

So as “vintage” photos of the Haim sisters and their friends are showcased as part of the lyric video, revealing them in all their uncoiffed, pre-TikTok-making-every-teen-girl-look-like-they’re-wearing-a-face-filter glory, it’s easy to feel the emotional gut punch of Danielle reminding, “And more time’s passing.” Further and further from that low-tech (and higher standard for pop culture) world of simplicity. Danielle adds, as though doing the voiceover for the fans listening to this song, “Just thinking about it makes me emotional.” As it is for Charli when she declares, “Those days it was so much better” before asking, “Does anyone remember how we did it back then?” 

Unfortunately, the answer seems to be, ever-increasingly, “no.” Which is why a song like “Take me back” (and “1999”) is so important. Because if you don’t hit people (namely, millennials), baby, one more time with the reminder of what it once was to not be so attached to and consumed by internet-fueled things, it becomes all the more effortless for them to lose sight of that last little bit of late twentieth/early twenty-first century humanity. So no wonder Charli XCX was advocating for a HAIM summer (among other kinds of summers) this year.