Starting her career at the age one normally is ending middle school, Billie Eilish began her singing career at 13 with her single “Ocean Eyes” gaining popularity in 2018. Since then on she’s released popular singles such as “Lovely,” “Bad Guy” and most recently “What Was I Made For?” for the Barbie Soundtrack.
On May 17, Eilish released her fourth album “Hit Me Hard and Soft” which contains 10 tracks with a playtime of 44 minutes.
While Eilish carries the stereotype of singing “too quietly” and “singing sad songs” this album defies that in every way and while some may not think that way the lyricism on this album is prominent. The sound on this album differs from her usual as well but I quite enjoy this change.
To begin, the first song on this album is titled “SKINNY.” I didn’t know what to expect with a title like such, but the actual sound and lyricism was impeccable. The song follows Eilish as she describes her journey in falling in love with a friend and her wronging her. Her vocal skills really shine through in this song and the overarching message is beautiful. The song is slow and melodic like many others gut what wasn’t expected was the next song to follow.
“LUNCH” is the second song on the album, and it begins with a very upbeat Eilish singing “I COULD EAT THAT GIRL FOR LUNCH,” which threw me off after hearing such a completely different song before that. While I was taken aback the actual song is very good and is slightly different than her usual sound yet enjoyable. Upon listening to the lyrics this song has many sexual innuendos towards a woman from Eilish.
While it’s a very hard choice and I can’t 100% decide my top three off the album are currently “BITTERSUITE”, “BIRDS OF A FEATHER” and “WILDFLOWER.”
“BITTERSUITE” is almost a five-minute song which goes by so quick as it’s so good. Compared to other songs this one is on the louder side and I would compare it to “NDA” off her 2021 album “Happier Than Ever” but midway through the rhythm completely changes into a more “boppy” kind of beat. This is super consistent throughout the album as many songs sound like there are songs within songs as the beats change so significantly.
“BIRDS OF A FEATHER” like “BITTERSUITE” is a cheery song. It’s very easy to sit through and listen and it isn’t as long as some other songs, sadly, but just as good. I really enjoy Eilish’s new sound as she doesn’t overdo it and is able to still sound like herself while incorporating new elements within her music like sound effects such as voice distortion.
“WILDFLOWER” begins off slow and slowly builds up. While some over her songs on the album do this, I’d have to say this is my favorite that does that. Not only is her singing beautifully done, but the lyricism is beautiful. It’s such a catchy song and overall, a ten in my books.
While I could listen to the album 10 times front to back there are some songs that I don’t particularly enjoy as much as other such as “THE GREATEST ” and “L’AMOUR DE MA VIE.”
For me personally, “THE GREATEST” took too long to get good. It’s very slow in the beginning and takes a while to pick up and while usually Eilish can perfect the slow, melancholy sounds, this song didn’t do it for me. Don’t get me wrong it’s still a great song just not the “GREATEST.”
With a title like “L’AMOUR DE MA VIE” I expected a completely different song than what I heard. If you started playing the song and skipped to then end you would think that you skipped to a completely different song that’s how different it is. It begins very gentle and about four minutes in it completely switches to a synthesizer or some electronic instrument of some sort as the beat begins to pick up.
While I have favorites more than others the entire album was an A+ in my book. Three years later and Eilish has come out of hiding and didn’t disappoint. I enjoyed the album thoroughly and every single song has been added to the playlist.
Speculations have been swarming around about more songs being released by Eilish which they call the “Ilomilo Theory.” If you’re a fan of Eilish you’ve had to heard of this theory by now as many are aware that Ilomilo is Eilish’s favorite cartoon. The cartoon characters are red and blue, and this album is blue. There have been many advertisements with red in it and its unusual of Eilish to only release 10 songs. While there is much more evidence of this theory it’s too much to share but if you search it up anywhere it’s easy to find or go to this Redditt thread which explains it.
Hopefully this theory reigns true and we get more of Eilish but for now this album is a 10/10. One could say it truly did hit me “Hard and Soft.”
