Within the three years since Billie Eilish’s sophomore album, 2021’s self-reflective, jazzy Happier Than Ever, the pop phenom hasn’t misplaced an oz of cultural relevance. Because of her Grammy– and Oscar-winning tune for final yr’s Barbie soundtrack, the crushing ballad “What Was I Made For?,” the 22-year-old is as ubiquitous as ever, placing the hype for her new music at an all-time excessive. After she introduced her third album final month—the curiously titled Hit Me Onerous and Comfortable, to be launched with no advance singles or movies—she revealed in an interview with Zane Lowe on Apple Music that she and her brother and longtime producer, Finneas, had “made an album with none or a lot considered different individuals.” One couldn’t assist however surprise if a shocking pivot was in retailer.
The ensuing Hit Me Onerous and Comfortable, nonetheless, largely returns to the menacing, typically theatrical palette of Eilish’s record-breaking debut. Swirling with midtempo beats, synthy mid-song breakdowns, and the occasional suite of strings from Attacca Quartet, the album doesn’t tread too far into new territory, as a substitute settling right into a brooding candy spot that Eilish is aware of nicely. Listed here are 5 takeaways from the brand new album.
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Billie Eilish: Hit Me Onerous and Comfortable
Making an attempt on New Vocal Types
Billie Eilish has made a reputation for herself on a selected sound: murky beats, earworm melodies, and ominous, whispered vocals. She switches up the latter a bit extra on Hit Me Onerous and Comfortable, shifting from clear, sugar-sweet vocals on the breezy pop confection “Birds of a Feather” to a pitch-shifted scream through the ecstatic, pinwheeling outro on “L’Amour de Ma Vie.” It’s enjoyable to see Eilish flex her completely different vocal modes, lending depth to songs like “Bittersuite,” the place she matches waves of swelling synths with jazzy vocal backing tracks.
A Looser, Extra Mature Billie Takes Form
One in every of Hit Me Onerous and Comfortable’s most memorable songs is the punchy synth-rock jaunt “Lunch,” the place Eilish is up entrance about discovering one other girl so scorching she might “eat that woman for lunch.” It’s a modern, sly intercourse tune that seems like probably the most enjoyable Eilish has had on document but, fusing her earlier, playful sound with a extra mature contact. She carries that mix of maturity and winking irreverence additional on the narrative-driven “The Diner,” assuming the attitude of a stalker over a deranged funhouse beat. “Don’t be afraid of me/I’m what you want,” she sings in a quietly pleading tone, “I noticed you on the screens/I do know we’re meant to be.” Understanding Eilish herself has been the topic of a terrifying stalker’s fascination in actual life provides a macabre undertone to the tune’s already unnerving story.
