This has been a bellwether year for young female artists, with the precocious Lorde and the irrepressible Miley Cyrus shaping their experiences into unfolding coming-of-age sagas. But in terms of sheer inventiveness, the sisters Haim—Este (27), Danielle (24) and Alana (21)—are in a class by themselves right now. Starting with the self-released Forever EP last October, and culminating (for the moment, at least) in their captivating debut album Days Are Gone (Columbia), these modern-day Valley Girls have come out of nowhere to build a progressively growing buzz based purely on the jaw-dropping quality of their music, a marvel of proficiency, sophistication and wound-coil precision.

Those aren’t my adjectives; I cherry-picked them from the brace of rhapsodic reviews Days Are Gone has received. In its veneration of the classic pop hook expertly re-engineered for the 2000s, Haim’s debut longplayer—co-produced by the band, primarily with Ariel Rechtshaid (Vampire Weekend, Usher)—bears certain similarities to Torches, the ultra-catchy, wicked-clever 2011 album by their labelmates Foster the People. And if Columbia can break lead single "The Wire," Days Are Gone could become as successful as that million-selling bow—because "The Wire" is just the tip of the iceberg on an irresistible LP Rolling Stone hailed it as a "microtriumph"; I’d delete the "micro."

Haim hooked me the old-fashioned way—on the car radio—turning me into a one-listen fan. I remember the exact moment "Forever" came on Sirius XMU in March, as my wife and I were driving down Ventura Blvd. in Sherman Oaks to see a movie at the Arclight Cinemas. We’d never heard of Haim (or HAIM, as they prefer to render the band name), and there was simply no precedent for the sound of the track, which boasted a wonderfully adept lead vocal that meshed Michael Jackson’s rhythmic acuity with Chrissie Hynde’s tough-and-tender sexiness over a Quincy Jones-style streamlined groove. When we got home, I headed straight to the iTunes Store and discovered that "Forever" was the title track of a three-song EP; there was also a two-sided single, "Don’t Save Me" b/w "Send Me Down." After a quick sampling, I grabbed all five—it was love at first listen.

In early August, after begging the label for an album advance, I loaded it in my iPhone, took it to a friend’s house and plugged it into his stereo during our regular Saturday night music, wine and weed revelry. From the first notes of "Falling" to the end of "Running When You Call My Name," everybody present was captivated, bobbing their heads and dancing around the room. Days Gone By, it turned out, was an instant party starter, one of only two albums I’ve heard this year capable of generating such a sustained visceral reaction, along with the North Mississippi Allstars’ similarly surprising World Boogie Is Coming.

In terms of the choices they make, Haim simply refuse to be classified, liberating them from the limitations that box in so many of their peers. They opted to go with Columbia in the States and Polydor in Britain, and each label is delivering for them out of what appears to be genuine enthusiasm. In another outside-the-box move, they went with Roc Nation for management. Danielle has played guitar for Jenny Lewis, The Strokes’ Julian Casablancas and Major Lazer, while the band made a guest appearance on Kid Cudi’s most recent album and politely declined an invitation to back A$AP Rocky. If it feels right, they do it—end of story.

The first half of the album, including the potential smashes "Falling," "If I Could Change Your Mind" and "Honey and I," is a cavalcade of delectable hooks, one after another, as the band blends elements of power-pop, synth-pop and R&B so seamlessly that these stylistic extremes cohere like Krazy Glue. On the second half, they confidently stretch into rockier and trippier territory, most strikingly on "My Song 5," a thunderclap of heavy guitars and crunchy hip-hop beats. This freewheeling approach has inspired numerous reviewers to play Spot the Influence; among the myriad reference points they’ve thrown into their critiques are Phoenix, the Arctic Monkeys, Spoon, Madonna, Pat Benatar, Sheena Easton, Laura Branigan, Taylor Swift, Shania Twain and, most of all, Fleetwood Mac. Reading the litany of wildly disparate comparisons in these reviews is enough to make your head spin, but given Haim’s backstory, this range of purported touchstones isn’t as far-fetched as it first appears.

The girls have been playing music practically their entire lives, initially covering classic-rock songs with their guitar-playing mom and Israeli-born drummer dad as the Rockinhaims (their first gig, fittingly enough, was at Canter’s deli), while Danielle and Este got their first taste of the music biz a decade ago as conscripted members of the Valli Girls, a manufactured kids group based on the Spice Girls, who made an album for Columbia, ironically enough. But their true musical primer, Danielle told the LA Weekly’s Tessa Stuart in her recent in-depth profile of the group, was "Just L.A. radio," to which Alana added, "People don't get how dope it is." The sisters say their listening extends to ’90s R&B acts like TLC and Destiny's Child, as well as contemporaries including Kendrick Lamar, Jessie Ware (who co-wrote the title track) and Azealia Banks.

Unlike most of their peers, the Haim girls don’t discriminate among genres or decades, nor do they have need for guilty pleasures—if a given record contains a killer hook, it becomes fair game for creative pilferage. They’ve fully assimilated and incorporated a remarkably broad range of influences; Danielle’s dynamic, deeply felt guitar playing evidences the lessons she learned from Lindsey Buckingham’s playing on the Fleetwood Mac classics, just as her warm, worldly singing begs comparisons to Christine McVie, while the album’s sleek programmed grooves indicate that the girls haven’t simply listened to a ton of Prince but have absorbed his advanced sense of rhythm into their bloodstreams.

Like Kings of Leon a decade ago, Haim initially made their mark in the U.K., and the rapidity with which they were able to connect on a massive scale is evident in the fact that Days Are Gone debuted at #1. Because they’ve toured there so frequently over the last year and a half, the Brits are fully aware of Haim’s dirty little secret: Onstage, with touring drummer Dash Hutton (son of Three Dog Night’s Danny Hutton) banging out the grooves, Haim rocks with authority and ecstatic energy. Check out their rip-roaring take on the early Fleetwood Mac riff-o-rama "Oh Well" on this lip-of-the-stage fan video from SXSW in March, which shows them at their most visceral.

If I had my way, Haim would more fully explore that rocking dimension on their next album. The next of many, I strongly suspect. Danielle, Este and Alana have made a debut album for the ages, and there’s no limit to what they can achieve in the long haul.