That is the least we’ve recognized about Billie Eilish going into an album. For years, the star’s journey was documented in yearly Vainness Truthful interviews and candid documentaries; even Carpool Karaoke visited Eilish’s childhood residence, the place she nonetheless lived till just lately. That seeming lack of boundaries between the pop star and her viewers is more and more normal for megastars, however Eilish’s intimate music made her a very robust candidate for parasociality. Her 2021 album, Happier Than Ever, was largely a response to public scrutiny, extra reserved and mature than her 2019 debut, When We All Fall Asleep, The place Do We Go? Within the ensuing years, Eilish stored a low profile, surfacing from time to time to soundtrack a Pixar movie or win an Oscar earlier than retreating to work on the subsequent file.
To listen to Eilish say it, the purpose for HIT ME HARD AND SOFT was making an “album-ass album,” citing Coldplay’s Viva La Vida and Vince Staples’ Massive Fish Principle as influences. These data are additionally formidable pop mini-epics the place established artists showcase their vary, however there’s often an outsider like Brian Eno or SOPHIE to get the musician out of their consolation zone. With Finneas as soon as once more on the helm, HMHAS is extra of the identical. For the primary time, Eilish’s stay drummer Andrew Marshall is on board, in addition to the Attacca Quartet, enjoying preparations orchestrated by Finneas and the prolific David Campbell. By no means one to subscribe to a single style, Eilish flits from minimalist trance to huge stadium rock, and the album has the identical dense vocal layering and creative percussion that make Finneas one of the crucial excessivelydocumented producers in pop. However there’s no true swerve, simply larger variations of what they’ve already made—even Coldplay dabbled in shoegaze! What experimentation exists right here demonstrates the siblings’ strengths and limitations as they enter their third undertaking collectively, however it’s diminishing returns.
Thematically, HMHAS focuses totally on falling out of affection with a narcissist (as documented on “Blue”) and falling in love with a lady for the primary time. Opener “Skinny” teases one other file in regards to the perils of fame, within the vein of Happier Than Ever, and it’s laborious to not blame her: When Eilish casually confirmed her bisexuality in a bigger Selection profile, that’s all of the press wished to speak about. When it’s addressed on the album, it’s on her personal phrases, as if the years of insensitive “queerbaiting” accusations by no means occurred. It’s laborious to face out within the age of Spotify-sanctioned sapphic playlists, however “Lunch” is pleasant for its matter-of-fact sexuality and the file’s greatest line deliveries: “I purchased you one thing uncommon/And I left it beneath… Claire.” Although the syncopated piano and guitar riffs recall the most generic of2010s alt-pop, Eilish maintains her irreverence with double entendres and zilch-entendres (“I simply wish to get her off,” she mumbles). The “Final Christmas” chord development of “Birds of a Feather” feels engineered to soundtrack wistful coming-of-age tales, and certain sufficient, you’ll discover it within the trailer for the wistful coming-of-age Netflix present Heartstopper. Each these songs are uniquely effervescent departures in her catalogue, however they by no means sound like a pop star enjoying catchup to pop radio—simply the earnest enthusiasm of somebody falling in love.
