2024 - USA
Alt-Pop, Singer-Songwriter, Indie Folk, Pop Rock, Indietronica
Water might be one of Billie Eilish’s most recurent theme visually. In Lovely, Everything I Wanted, Happier Than Ever, it’s an element running through her entire discography, now completely covering the artwork of her new album. The first time you hear HIT ME HARD AND SOFT, it’s a stunning surprise. It even helps understand her previous record better. Happier Than Ever was a true transition in her sound between When We All Fall Asleep (Therefore I Am, Overheated, Oxytocin) and HIT ME HARD AND SOFT (Billie Bossa Nova, My Future, Happier Than Ever). But as soon as SKINNY begins, you understand that Billie Eilish finally reached that newfound sound she was looking for. As for her vocals, they have never been this mature and multiple. « Am I acting my age now? Am I already on the way out? When I step off the stage, I’m a bird in a cage » she wonders on the opening song. Now 22, Billie Eilish’s fame has never been that big, and finding balance between that and her private life has always been a constant fight. But as her third album seems to be the most coherent work she ever recorded, Billie doesn’t seem to have reached peace of mind yet. Drowing in her aquatic world (or getting out ?), HIT ME HARD AND SOFT analyzes the contentious situation between this new skin she’s embracing, and her insecurities that won’t let go. So as the violin carries the melody at the end of SKINNY, is it helping Billie go up, or is it just a way to make her fall into darkness more peaceful and melodramatic ?
The immediate answer would be : up. Of course, because HIT ME HARD AND SOFT is a tremendous vibration spreading pleasure in your veins. « She’s takin’ pictures in the mirror / Oh my God, her skin’s so clear / Tell her « Bring that over here » / You need a seat? I’ll volunteer / Now she’s smilin’ ears to ear / She’s the headlights, I’m the deer » Even on Oxytocin, Billie has rarely been this transparent on her physical attraction to others. Ending in complete electronic club vibes, LUNCH is the definite pop song from this album, lighting up the sea with stroboscopic lights as if it was a party. That’s the same energy closing L’AMOUR DE MA VIE with its upbeat, almost Eurodance, second part. After a first part about a breakup, Billie is eager to dance over her past scars, adventuring in a sonic world that might have been kitsch and dated but here feels perfectly right and thrilling. « Just want you to touch me / Come on, ha / I know it seems to just be the beginning / Listen up, hm / I want you to keep on doing it / It’s something I don’t know ». Even on BITTERSUITE, her out-of-body experience is filled with a desire for the unknown, in an album where she speaks openly for the first time about her love for women. But on the other hand, these vibrations also sound like a heart trying as much as it can to keep breathing in the midst of her fears. Indeed, in between her dances lie intricate love tales where burning wounds resurface. And alongside that, Billie Eilish’s brilliant talent for heartbreaking songwriting.
If we put aside the twisted love tale that is THE DINER where Billie adopts her stalker’s point of view, the rest of the album talks about a more intimate passion. With the sweet BIRDS OF A FEATHER, it’s an almighty kind of love, one that transcends life, « I want you to stay / Til I’m in the grave / Til I rot away, dead and buried / Til I’m in the casket you carry ». On WILDFLOWER, she questions love’s morality : « I see her in the back of my mind, all the time / Feels like a fever, like I’m burning alive, like a sign / Did I cross the line? » Questions surrounded by toxic traits, Billie swims in an ocean of potential regrets. Until… « Wanna know what I told her / With her hand on my shoulder? You were so mediocre / And we’ so glad / It’s so over » she serenades on L’AMOUR DE MA VIE. That change of dynamic also happens during THE GREATEST when she finally recognizes « God I hate it / All my love and patience / Unappreciated ». In her new skin, Billie Eilish finally finds the right perspective to transform her drowning love tales into self-affirming hymns. That’s all the beauty of HIT ME HARD AND SOFT. Between bossa nova melodies and pop rock outbursts, the entire album is built around ascending structures. « I tried to scream, but my head was underwater » she sang on everything i wanted. And if Happier Than Ever helped her reach the surface, it was just for a short moment thanks to the adrenaline. Now she tries to make that moment everlasting.
Trying to get out while not unvalidating your past experiences, that’s one of the theme from Miyazaki’s Chihiro that gives its name to the album’s very best song. With its closed doors and disappearing soulmates, Billie visits a mystic place where lies her desire to escape endless obsessions. And to achieve that, she leaves the space for FINNEAS’ production to blow, this amazing electronic progression upwards that never truly climaxes. This part totally echoes other songs : the final indie rock part from WILDFLOWER, the chorus from THE GREATEST, the final dark electronic notes from BITTERSUITE, all those striking moments look for a way to elevate. It’s a breakout, and a breakthrough. And the climax comes with BLUE, where all comes together. Like she used to with goodbye and NDA, the song is filled with references to other songs from the album. But more than this, it’s the composition itself that sends us back in time. Both a reworked version of True Blue (a song she wrote when she was 14) and Born Blue (a song written for Happier Than Ever), BLUE also takes us back to listen before i go with its siren sounds. « I sleep ‘bout three hours each night / Means only 21 a week now / And I could say the same ‘bout you / Born blameless, grew up famous too / Just a baby born blue now ». She took the ocean’s color she was drowning it and it made her feel a lack of oxygen. But all that pressure, all that past, she transcended them with pleasure and childhood memories. Out of the blue, now 22.
The immediate answer would be : up. Of course, because HIT ME HARD AND SOFT is a tremendous vibration spreading pleasure in your veins. « She’s takin’ pictures in the mirror / Oh my God, her skin’s so clear / Tell her « Bring that over here » / You need a seat? I’ll volunteer / Now she’s smilin’ ears to ear / She’s the headlights, I’m the deer » Even on Oxytocin, Billie has rarely been this transparent on her physical attraction to others. Ending in complete electronic club vibes, LUNCH is the definite pop song from this album, lighting up the sea with stroboscopic lights as if it was a party. That’s the same energy closing L’AMOUR DE MA VIE with its upbeat, almost Eurodance, second part. After a first part about a breakup, Billie is eager to dance over her past scars, adventuring in a sonic world that might have been kitsch and dated but here feels perfectly right and thrilling. « Just want you to touch me / Come on, ha / I know it seems to just be the beginning / Listen up, hm / I want you to keep on doing it / It’s something I don’t know ». Even on BITTERSUITE, her out-of-body experience is filled with a desire for the unknown, in an album where she speaks openly for the first time about her love for women. But on the other hand, these vibrations also sound like a heart trying as much as it can to keep breathing in the midst of her fears. Indeed, in between her dances lie intricate love tales where burning wounds resurface. And alongside that, Billie Eilish’s brilliant talent for heartbreaking songwriting.
If we put aside the twisted love tale that is THE DINER where Billie adopts her stalker’s point of view, the rest of the album talks about a more intimate passion. With the sweet BIRDS OF A FEATHER, it’s an almighty kind of love, one that transcends life, « I want you to stay / Til I’m in the grave / Til I rot away, dead and buried / Til I’m in the casket you carry ». On WILDFLOWER, she questions love’s morality : « I see her in the back of my mind, all the time / Feels like a fever, like I’m burning alive, like a sign / Did I cross the line? » Questions surrounded by toxic traits, Billie swims in an ocean of potential regrets. Until… « Wanna know what I told her / With her hand on my shoulder? You were so mediocre / And we’ so glad / It’s so over » she serenades on L’AMOUR DE MA VIE. That change of dynamic also happens during THE GREATEST when she finally recognizes « God I hate it / All my love and patience / Unappreciated ». In her new skin, Billie Eilish finally finds the right perspective to transform her drowning love tales into self-affirming hymns. That’s all the beauty of HIT ME HARD AND SOFT. Between bossa nova melodies and pop rock outbursts, the entire album is built around ascending structures. « I tried to scream, but my head was underwater » she sang on everything i wanted. And if Happier Than Ever helped her reach the surface, it was just for a short moment thanks to the adrenaline. Now she tries to make that moment everlasting.
Trying to get out while not unvalidating your past experiences, that’s one of the theme from Miyazaki’s Chihiro that gives its name to the album’s very best song. With its closed doors and disappearing soulmates, Billie visits a mystic place where lies her desire to escape endless obsessions. And to achieve that, she leaves the space for FINNEAS’ production to blow, this amazing electronic progression upwards that never truly climaxes. This part totally echoes other songs : the final indie rock part from WILDFLOWER, the chorus from THE GREATEST, the final dark electronic notes from BITTERSUITE, all those striking moments look for a way to elevate. It’s a breakout, and a breakthrough. And the climax comes with BLUE, where all comes together. Like she used to with goodbye and NDA, the song is filled with references to other songs from the album. But more than this, it’s the composition itself that sends us back in time. Both a reworked version of True Blue (a song she wrote when she was 14) and Born Blue (a song written for Happier Than Ever), BLUE also takes us back to listen before i go with its siren sounds. « I sleep ‘bout three hours each night / Means only 21 a week now / And I could say the same ‘bout you / Born blameless, grew up famous too / Just a baby born blue now ». She took the ocean’s color she was drowning it and it made her feel a lack of oxygen. But all that pressure, all that past, she transcended them with pleasure and childhood memories. Out of the blue, now 22.