HIT ME HARD AND SOFT - Billie Eilish
Eilish’s latest is a collection of emotions that constantly deconstructs and reforms itself to remain excitingly unpredictable
Amidst a warbling guitar line that reverberates endlessly through a lulling aquamarine ambience sings a voice, begging the question “Am I on the way out?”. The mood is exquisitely palpable. The voice both serene and tragic. What follows such a meditatively melancholic musing is an evolution of violins that immensely adds to the emotional resonance and creates a fully realized introduction to the brand-new album from Billie Eilish: HIT ME HARD AND SOFT. After opening on such a powerful note, the album continues to show across it’s runtime that while this tone is perfectly set, it’s only a taste of the highs that the project reaches. Eilish has created her most musically and lyrically mature body of work to date through this album, exhibiting such an invigorating spectrum of emotions (through a mercurial tracklist of surprising cohesion) that it cannot be labeled as anything less than as a certified success.
Although Eilish has already established herself as a veritable musical force on the popular scene, she attains an all-new level of artistry across this phenomenal release. Her vocals have become further honed, achieving equally pitch-perfect moments whether she lands earth-shaking belting to the heavens on “THE GREATEST” or hitting moody and angelic high notes on “CHIHIRO”. Her precision is nothing short of a raw talent that has been sharpened and practiced to near-perfection, whilst still maintaining her own personability and uniqueness within the sound. What was a strong ability on prior records has become pure excellency on this one that ranks her vocals highly amongst other contemporary peers. Daringly, it even warrants comparisons to legends such as Sade on highly emotive releases like the country-tinged “WILDFLOWER”.
Across the entire album, there is no individual line which is loosely delivered; rather, every vocal expression from Eilish is fully and passionately unleashed like a bulging point of pressure. There is simply an awe-inspiring amount of feeling packed into her deliveries that it becomes physically impossible to listen to tracks like “THE GREATEST” without becoming overwhelmed with the pain that Eilish expunges. The song, backed by Eilish’s signature ukelele (which harkens back to early emotive tracks like “party favor”), feels like an immensely symbolic point of maturation from Eilish. Across the heavy track, her internal turmoil becomes audible as she reflects on how deeply pained a past relationship made her feel despite giving it her all. Rather than make the song focus on the partner in question, their shortcomings, or the pain they inflicted though, Billie solely looks internally and observes. She doesn’t victimize herself nor externalize some villain, but rather communicates simply how empty giving your all to another can be. In the track’s gigantic and jaw-dropping climax, she screams out “I loved you and I still do / Just wanted passion from you”. It’s a moment that cuts deeply into the soul and is the unmistakable pain of a howling spirit.
This trend of self-analysis and the tallying of emotions continues throughout the album, as she continuously keeps her heart central to greatly relatable effect. “L’AMOUR DE MA VIE” is another inclusion that vividly paints Eilish’s experiences and allows herself to be understood intimately by listeners. Her love of romantic, golden-age jazz club stylings that was prominent on her prior record is utilized once again, but now in a manner that feels fully natural rather than the embodiment of a façade. As she reaches the real turning point of the song’s lyrics, the entire production smoothly transforms into a whole other beast in a metamorphosis that is positively magnificent to witness. Jazz begins to slide away, like a record player dying, as a deep club bassline begins to build alongside a Porter Robinson-esque vocoder filter on Eilish’s refrain. New growth arises from the rich soil in the form of modern techno-pop production ala Charli XCX. It’s such a surprising and ingenious turn of the track as her sadness fades away in place of the joy that replaces it. She symbolically and aptly creates a tangible representation of the internal growth that the ending of the relationship at hand inspired.
“L’AMOUR DE MA VIE”’s evolution is stunning but also only one such example of innovative developments on the album. Immediately following it is “THE DINER”, one of the work’s very best cuts. Opening with a 1920’s rhythm led by a vintage-sounding saxophone line, it quickly becomes accompanied by a booming bass, trap-y percussion, and gargantuan tubas. As the production continues to build and Eilish’s proclamations sound more and more omnipotent, it forms together to create a track that is best described as “contemporary cabaret”. There’s an unnatural combination of elements at play that pull from both Eilish’s recorded influences and her past works, mashed together into a fully realized vision. HIT ME HARD AND SOFT’s production and creativeness is an absolute marvel across tracks like this one and other stand-out examples such as “BIRDS OF A FEATHER”, which is a dreamy pop track with island percussion and a vocal melody that channels the great pop love ballads of the 90s.
Billie Eilish has long ascertained her disdain for genre and her attempts to subvert it. While that has been to only debatable success on prior records, this newest record sees Eilish decidedly carving out a collection of tracks that span moods, genres, and stylings to create a work which is wholly singular. Eilish, alongside her brother and career-collaborator FINNEAS, have produced their most trailblazing effort to date with this record through charting new territory that blends past, present, and future.
Songs vary so widely across the tracklist while maintaining an unbroken flow, showcasing positively perfect sequencing with exceptionally smooth transitions. Withing songs themselves there are large swathes of evolution that are inconducive but orchestrated by Eilish in such a way that they become smoothed-out and naturally fitting. Whether that be “BITTERSUITE” moving from a laid-back ska atmosphere into a brash, electronic deconstruction of maximalist ambience or “BLUE” embodying a Linkin Park energy before changing into a wide-spaced scary-trap environment reminiscent of her second album, Eilish always keeps listeners guessing. By refusing to ever be predictable on this record, it makes listening to it an invigorating experience of emotional exploration that will keep listeners always on their toes. All in all, HIT ME HARD AND SOFT is an exceptional outing for the musical all-star which sees her not only sharpening her craft to a carnassial point, but constantly pushing it forward to explore what else is possible.