On Hit Me Hard and Soft, Billie Eilish Is Wounded, Soaring, and Rejuvenated: Review
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The post On Hit Me Hard and Soft, Billie Eilish Is Wounded, Soaring, and Rejuvenated: Review appeared first on Consequence.
Something snapped in the climax of “Happier Than Ever,” the title track of Billie Eilish’s 2021 sophomore album. Amidst songs about the trappings of fame, oversized expectations and projections, and loving herself, she sang about heartbreak, too. And on the overblown outro, Billie Eilish — as her hero Lana Del Rey would say — was fresh out of fucks to give, effectively shutting the door on her ex and finding a seismic way to close out the then-newest iteration of Billie Eilish, eclectic pop connoisseur.
The thing about heartbreak, though, is that you can pull yourself out of the darkest pits, find love again, lose it again, and be transported right back in the depths of despair once more, all in the span of three or four years. This is the emotional backdrop of Hit Me Hard and Soft, Billie Eilish’s excellent third album. If the heartbreak felt bad on Happier Than Ever, it’s crushing on Hit Me Hard and Soft.
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Released with no preceding singles and relatively limited promotion for a pop star the size of Eilish, Hit Me Hard and Soft is not a surprise left turn but the consolidation of sonic ideas broached in Happier Than Ever. Eilish’s breakthrough sound from five years ago consisted of icy hip-hop-inspired beats that she cooed over in a mostly breathy, ASMR-style delivery. All of that is not getting hard to remember, and in retrospect seems remarkable.
Now, she still possesses command of her softer register, but Hit Me Hard and Soft demonstrates more sides of Billie Eilish’s voice than ever before. There are approximately three hip-hop-inspired beats from Finneas, and the rest run the gamut from soft rock to deep house, lush R&B to jazzy indie rock. “Happier Than Ever” was just a tease; Eilish is skyscraping more than once on Hit Me Hard and Soft, evoking everyone from Hayley Williams to Solange.
The album follows a loose narrative structure. “Skinny” picks up where Happier Than Ever left off, and sets the scene for Hit Me Hard’s journey: “I fell in love for the first time,” she tenderly relays over the softest electric guitar imaginable. In just the first song, Eilish’s guard is already down — “People say I look happy/ Just because I got skinny,” goes one line, later re-treading ground from Happier Than Ever with, “When I step off the stage I’m a bird in a cage/ I’m a dog in a dog pound” and lamenting social media’s hunger for “the meanest kind of funny.” But then, she hits a soaring, crystal clear high note, followed by the most R&B-Billie Eilish run imaginable, closing out the song with a weeping string section.
It’s all spellbindingly intimate, and then comes “Lunch” — the onset of Eilish’s love affair, guided almost solely by lust (“It’s a craving, not a crush,” she sings). “Lunch,” with its driving tempo, reedy guitars, and horny urgency, stands as Billie Eilish’s post-punk banger. The introduction of Finneas’ swallowing bass in the end is so jarring that it leaps out of the speakers. She continues narrating the nervy early phases of a relationship on the downright gorgeous “Chihiro,” which feels like a spiritual sequel to Happier Than Ever’s “NDA.” Besides the very sapphic “Lunch,” “Chihiro” is one of the only times Eilish subtly references the societal divide of a queer romance, and the murky lines crossed as a relationship turns “serious.” But on these heartbroken love songs, the gender is irrelevant.
From “Birds of a Feather” onward, Eilish is head over heels in love. “Birds of a Feather” and “Lunch” are the two most elated tracks, but the rest of them, no matter how lush their arrangements are or how many times Eilish sings something along the lines of “I will love you forever,” are marked by conflict or complications. “Wildflower” depicts something of a love triangle gone awry, the appropriately-named “L’amour de Ma Vie (Love of My Life)” takes a cheery Bossa Nova-like groove and dismantles it for a full synth-pop breakdown — all while Eilish sings about the immediate end of the relationship. The final two tracks, “Bittersuite” and “Blue,” are ridden with the sorrow of heartbreak.
“The Greatest” serves as the album’s soaring centerpiece. With the most dynamic, soul-baring vocal performance in Billie Eilish’s career, “The Greatest” is an astounding turn, bemoaning the price of a love that Eilish hoped would be unconditional.
On “Happier Than Ever,” Eilish controlled the narrative, powerfully exerting apathy towards someone who didn’t deserve her and serving up lines like “You were my everything/ And all that you did was make me fuckin’ sad.” On “The Greatest,” however, Eilish’s breaking point comes from a much different place. “I loved you and I still do/ Just wanted passion from you/ Just wanted what I gave you,” she howls in anguish, almost in disbelief that everything has fallen apart.
Sequentially, it is a little strange having such a climactic song arrive straight in the middle of the album — but given the air of acceptance that Eilish finally musters in “Blue,” it’s clear that the arc of the album needed that low point of desperation. “Blue” is both devastating and at peace with the end, once again employing a mid-track switch and concluding Eilish’s journey with a sense of discovery, suggesting the best is yet to come. “But when can I hear the next one?” Eilish mutters over silence as the final seconds play out, a fascinatingly pedestrian way of closing this soul-baring romantic document.
It’s worth noting that while Eilish’s narrative arc is in tact — and her lyrics are as sharp as they were on Happier Than Ever — Finneas’ arranging and production work is one of the more rewarding developments on Hit Me Hard and Soft. These songs line up thematically with the rise and fall of a relationship, and yet sonically, the album finds cohesion in a wild variety of inspirations.
When Billie Eilish first broke out, there was a lot of talk about the rise of the “Spotify Sound” and the genreless future that popular music was headed towards. Eilish and Finneas’ original pop experiments played heavily with these ideas, resisting co-writers for the sake of forming their own self-reflexive, deliberately-chosen pop cocktail. They haven’t exactly changed their strategy, and yet, every song on Hit Me Hard and Soft still feels like a Billie Eilish song: Full of darkness, stark intimacy, and sounds informed by the avant-pop sensibilities of Frank Ocean and Solange.
In a way, what makes Hit Me Hard and Soft so impressive is the sense that Eilish and Finneas are still doing whatever they want. They’ll add mid-track switch-ups and lofty string sections, they’ll use a post-EDM palate to make jarring transitions from naturalistic instruments. The arrangements are not as risky as the messiness found in “Happier Than Ever,” nor are they so sugary-sweet that they sound AI-assisted. But everything is fair game, and every choice is tasteful — barring, say, the tinny flute sound that opens “The Diner.” Hit Me Hard and Soft is cohesive thematically, but in terms of what Eilish is singing over, the pair of siblings sound completely rejuvenated.
Hit Me Hard and Soft can be devastating, though, and those experiencing some form of heartbreak will likely connect instantly with the album’s earnest journey. Clearly, Eilish turned her anguish into a great motivator, as many great artists have done before. That’s why it’s refreshing to hear her plainly ask “But when can I hear the next one?” — we’re all wondering the same thing.
On Hit Me Hard and Soft, Billie Eilish Is Wounded, Soaring, and Rejuvenated: Review
Paolo Ragusa
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