Billie Eilish is constantly thinking. On what she is, what she represents, what the world demands of her and what she is now ready to give to those who observe her as well as to those she loves. Expressing his moods on complex and daring productions, using clear and reckless texts, the 22-year-old artist demonstrates on Hit Me Hard And Soft that she is one of those that pop needs the most.
“I could eat that girl for lunch”, she sings to begin Lunchsecond piece of Hit Me Hard And Soft, on which she worships a girl she ardently desires, over a frank pop rhythm marked by the drumpad. It’s decidedly queer and fun. This is the biggest banger of the album. We meet a Billie Eilish that we didn’t yet know and that we continue to discover over 10 songs, for 45 minutes of listening. If she had never really drawn on sexuality for her texts (she started so young, only 16 years old, and has often denounced the hypersexualization of her body), she reappropriates the theme without ambiguity. She also said in a rare interview with Rolling Stone that this song helped her better understand her queer identity.
Extract of Lunch
And while the magnificent opening song Skinnyvery airy and delicate, began with a guitar melody to give way to a dizzying conclusion led by an ensemble of strings, the last seconds of Lunch rather lead to a metamorphosis towards techno and dance accents. Chihiro (since her first album, Eilish has said she was inspired by the film Spirited away, by Hayao Miyazaki), rather lo-fi, then comes to totally delight us thanks to its captivating chorus. Halfway through, the synthesizers embark on a fleeting flight that will give you chills.
But nothing surprises (and pleases) more than the daring about-face on the play Love of my life (Eilish does not sing in French, but pronounces the words once): she begins with a catchy groove with sweet stacked vocals which suddenly becomes hyper-pop and danceable, borrows synthesizers from the 1980s and works the voice with a vocoder to make it as synthetic as possible. In short, Billie Eilish goes all over the place.
Fantastic Finneas
Halfway through our first listen to Hit Me Hard And Soft, a clear reflection came to us: Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas (co-author and producer of the album) do what they want and they do it so well that we are both surprised and captivated. If they consider a song worthy of a complete mood change halfway through, they will allow it. If they want the simple acoustic guitar and the vaporous voice of the splendid The Greatest (whose dramatic rise is one of the most beautiful things on this album) precede the pop tunes inspired by a Parisian refrain (an accordion tone as a bonus), they will. Anything goes when you have this much talent. Because all the avenues in which the creative duo has engaged have led to excellence. However, a common point emerges: if her third album does not lack the lugubrious character that she likes, Billie Eilish offers a much brighter work than her previous ones.
Extract of The Greatest
Once again, Finneas does a masterful job in composition and production. His productions are so elaborate that in some cases it took us multiple listens to pick up on the subtle layers of movement he infused here or the looping technique he used there to generate tension.
Wildflower, on which Billie Eilish says “I see her in the back of my mind all the time/Like a Fever/Like I’m burning alive/Like a Sign,” is another fiery declaration of love and desire. The instruments (simple guitars and drums) become more rock on this moving ballad, another change of direction which fits perfectly into the whole despite its uniqueness.
A voice like no other
PHOTO PROVIDED BY UNIVERSAL MUSIC
Billie Eilish
However Billie Eilish decides to present her voice, she does so with stunning skill every time. She masters the highest notes and the lowest tones, she can make her voice airy as well as she can make it sharp. True to their familiar aesthetic, Eilish and Finneas immersed the former’s vocals in a thick, ravishing mist, with several productions giving the impression of floating in fog. But on several occasions, it was instead decided to keep a clear space in which the words sung by Billie Eilish are more intelligible than ever (Birds of feathers is a good example). Even more, she deploys her instrument as rarely before, allowing herself feats which have nothing to do with the ethereal accuracy which makes her mark, but which rather offer a mature interpretation, open-throated and full of strength, without ever lacking of delicacy. It’s another vocal feat from Billie Eilish, throughout this new album.
Extract of Love of my life
Billie Eilish stuck to ten songs and we thank her for that. Every piece in its place. Nothing overflows. She indulges in follies (The love of my life, Blue, The Greatest, Bittersuite – think avalanche of synthesizers then hip-hop pulsations then bossa nova, in the same song), but do not complicate what can remain simple and pleasant (the almost-R & B Chihirothe very pop bird of feathers).
Hit Me Hard And Soft is a prodigiously stimulating listen. A listening which reveals to us, in addition to the personal confessions more frank than ever from the artist, that the music of Billie Eilish (and of Finneas, let’s not forget) is more and more avant-garde, without limits and, simply… amazing.
The Hit M World Toure Hard And Soft by Billie Eilish will be launched on September 29 at the Videotron Center in Quebec.
Pop
Hit Me Hard And Soft
Billie Eilish
Darkroom / Interscope