Billie Eilish, Hit Me Hard and Soft (2024)
"When Alexander Hellene first invited me to write about music, we had a conversation about the goals of this publication and what sort of albums we wanted to focus on . . ."
Release Date: May 17, 2024
Label: Darkroom, Interscope
Length: 43:45
Produced By: Finneas
Rating: 9.5
Review by: Alexandru Constantin
Highlights: “Chihiro,” The Diner,” “Bittersuite,” “Blue”
When Alexander Hellene first invited me to write about music, we had a conversation about the goals of this publication and what sort of albums we wanted to focus on. One of the things that we settled on was that we wanted to make sure that we are not just focusing on albums and bands from our youth, rehashing the classics, but also engaging with the new and contemporary. Of course, I plan on writing about my favorite post-punk albums, goth rock, and new wave, but that will come down the line. For now, I want to write about new albums, Morrissey can wait.
So after the initial invite, I sat down to decide what album I wanted to write about. I wanted to pick the artist that best captures the 21st century so far, somebody from the younger generation, a post-Millennial. My first choice for best artist of the century so far was Amy Winehouse, but upon further reflection I realized that she would have been the same age as me, both of us were born in 1983 making us early Millennials. Amy’s music, especially her masterpiece album Back to Black defined my late 20s and brought the 20th century into the 21st, but her work, a style that looks back to early blues, jazz, and British reggae mixed with a Millennial boozing sensibility doesn’t capture the mood of the younger generations.
So I went back through my album collection to think about who defines the 21st for me. Lana Del Ray is one of my favorite artists, but again, she belongs to my generation. Taylor Swift, but she’s folk-rock pastiche at best and elevator music at her worst. Then it dawned on me. The best artist of the 21st century, who has defined the new in the past couple of years, is 22-year-old Billie Eilish. Her first album, the excellent Where Do We Go When We Fall Asleep, was filled with bangers like “Bad Guy” that everyone and their 90-year-old grandmas knows, and thoughtful, ethereal beautiful pieces like “I Love You.” Not only that, but the writing and production of the album, all songs written and produced by Eilish and her brother Finneas, have a lo-fi, made-on-the-internet vibe that captures the essence of the born-online generation. Her baggy clothes, vague media persona, and rejection of traditional pop trappings speak to a generation very different than my own.
Yes, Billie Eilish is my choice for the best artist of the 21st century so far, so I sat down to write about her first album. Halfway through my piece, I looked at my phone: it was a text from my wife letting me know that Billie dropped a new album and I should listen to it immediately. So I put everything on hold and gave the album a listen on my drive home from work, and it blew my mind, being the best new album I’ve listened to in years.
Hit Me Hard and Soft is Billie Eilish’s third studio album, written and produced by her and her brother Finneas, and recorded at their home studio. The album, unlike so many albums released in the era of streaming, is a legitimate album. What I mean is that it is a complete and cohesive work of art instead of being a collection of singles sandwiched in between fillers. Hit Me Hard and Soft is an album that is best listened to from beginning to end, taken in as an experience, and like its cover of Billie falling through an underwater door, the album is a dreamlike emotional journey flowing with conflicting and complex emotions that remind me of the highs and lows of my early twenties.
The album starts with “Skinny,” a track that bridges the new work with the old with a vibe that is almost a continuation of Billie’s last album Happier Than Ever. It’s a song about coming to terms with fame and the change that it brings along with the difficulty of relationships. This slower beginning is followed up by “Lunch,” the album's quirky pop piece that is the most talked about due to its lesbian theme of lust and attraction. But for me, the album hits its stride with “Chihiro,” which happens to be the name of Miyazaki’s protagonist in Spirited Away, a movie, just like this album, that has a watery, dreamlike vibe along with a theme of a girl becoming more of an adult. “Chihiro” is a banger, synth-driven, with an interesting format that breaks away from generic pop.
Next, we have a trio of ballads beginning with the radio-friendly “Birds of a Feather,” followed by “Wildflower,” and finishing up with “The Greatest,” a song where Eilish shows off her vocal skills and puts to rest any criticism about her whisper style. All three songs are about love, relationships, disappointment, and feel like the best of Fleetwood Mac brought into the digital age. This is followed up by the interesting Edith Piaf French synthpop-disco “L’Amour De Ma Vie,” a love song of sorts that ends in disappointment and mutual rejection.
Finally, the album hits its peak with the last three tracks, taking it from “great pop album” into the realm of art that defines the vibe of our present. First, you have the dark and bizarre “The Diner,” a song from the perspective of a stalker with lyrics like “You’re lookin’ right at me/I’m here around the clock/I’m waitin’ on your block/But please don’t call the cops,” over driving synth. Then we flow into the closing pair of songs that in my opinion make a complete whole that must be listened to together, “Bittersuite” and “Blue,” songs that experiment with rhythm and style changes and deal with the depths of emotional relationships, vulnerability, and disappointment. The two songs almost share a dreamy synthpop leitmotif that brings the album to a perfect close.
Hit Me Hard and Soft is Billie’s best album so far, a tightly produced yet vulnerable work of art that brings her to the end of adolescence and into her twenties. Billie is the best of Gen Z, and after listening to her work I’m excited to see what she will bring forth in her future as she moves into her twenties.
Hit Me Hard and Soft
Skinny
Lunch
Chihiro
Birds of a Feather
Wildflower
The Greatest
L’Amour de Ma Vie
The Diner
Bittersuite
Blue
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L’amour de ma vie was worth the second listen. Billie and her brother are seriously talented.
I listened to four or five tracks and loved them. On a first listen. Quality.