Songfacts®:

• The ups and downs of romantic relationships in all their maddening, exhilarating, often completely nonsensical glory, is a topic that has inspired poets, musicians, and late-night text messages for centuries. So it's no surprise that Haim, a band well-versed in the emotional roller coaster of love, found themselves circling the same thematic territory with their song "Relationships." It explores the uncertainty, dishonesty, and frustrating loop-de-loops that romantic entanglements seem determined to put us through.
  
  "We all came in, and we all kind of needed this song," Alana Haim told Apple Music. "I think it was a thing that was coming out of our souls."
• The breezy pop track has had quite a journey. The Haim sisters first sketched it out in 2017 during a flight in Australia, intended for their Women In Music Pt. III album. Though the song simply refused to be finished, Danielle Haim couldn't shake the feeling that it needed to see the light of day. It loitered in the background of their creative process for years, shifting and evolving as their personal lives did the same. Finally, after years of tinkering, revisiting, and (presumably) staring at it with exasperation, "Relationships" was released as a single on March 12, 2025.
  
  "This song - it took us seven years to finish," Danielle told BBC Radio 1's Jack Saunders. "We've been waiting so long to put it out. And now it's finally time. And it's about everything we always go through. Are you in a relationship? Are you in a situationship? Are you not in a relationship? Do you not want to be in a relationship? It's all things. All-encompassing."
• Like much of Haim's material, "Relationships" was born out of personal experience, observational wisdom, and an inevitable collaboration with their musical inner circle. The sisters co-wrote the song with Tobias Jesso Jr. (the songwriter behind Adele's "To Be Loved," Harry Styles "Boyfriends," Dua Lipa's "Houdini") and Danielle's then-boyfriend, producer Ariel Rechtshaid.
• Danielle Haim and Rostam Batmanglij (Vampire Weekend, Clairo) worked together to produce the track with Buddy Ross (Frank Ocean, Travis Scott) also lending a hand. What started as a slower, more melancholic song eventually found its rhythm as an upbeat, funk-tinged indie-pop track, drawing inspiration from the '90s R&B influences of their second album, Something to Tell You.
  
  "We care about production and things like that," Danielle explained. "But it was kind of just this thing where we knew it was special - it just never sounded right. We kept trying different things. This drum pattern, that beat. At first, it was kind of a sad song, but we thought, maybe this should have more of a dance beat. We wanted it to be the song that gets you on the dance floor. So I think this is the most dance-y Haim song... for now."
• Director, artist and fashion photographer Camille Summers-Valli shot the music video for "Relationships," which stars Queer actor Drew Starkey alongside the band. It visually complements the song's themes of complicated relationships and emotional turmoil.
• "Relationships" was a song Haim knew had potential from the start, but in early versions the production wasn't quite landing. "It was very slow and heavy at first," Alana Haim told Consequence.
  
  What ultimately brought the track to life was a shift in their personal lives: all three sisters found themselves single at the same time, going out together and embracing a sense of freedom and fun.
  
  "We were having different adventures together," Alana said. "So we wanted the song to feel like something you could walk down the street to with confidence - uninhibited. Because we were single, we wanted to dance, be happy, and reconnect as sisters."
• Danielle Haim told Apple Music that "Relationships" was one of those songs that just wouldn't come easy. "Honestly, there's always one on every album," she said. "It's always kind of like our favorite one."
  
  She compared the struggle to previous fan favorites. "'The Wire' was very tough to crack; 'Want You Back' was super tough to crack; 'The Steps,' super, super tough to crack. This is in the same lineage as those," she said.
  
  Despite the challenge - or maybe because of it - she called "Relationships" "one of my favorite songs we've ever written."