On Friday, May 17th, Billie Eilish released her third album “HIT ME HARD AND SOFT”. This album is her first release since the Golden Globe, Grammy, and Academy award-winning Barbie hit, “What Was I Made For?,” which dropped last summer. After quite a few years of sparse releases from Billie, fans (like myself) grew in anticipation for another album. To kick off the album excitement, Eilish changed all of her social media profiles to solid blue, hinting at the upcoming album. From there, various billboards popped up around the world, each featuring black backgrounds with solid blue lyrics. Finally, Billie announced the title and release date of her third album on April 8th.
Unlike Billie’s previous releases, very little of the album had been revealed prior to its release. Only small snippets of a handful of songs were leaked or released online. Most popularly, the chorus of “LUNCH” and “CHIHIRO” were almost immediately trending after being released. Billie also played the ending of “L’AMOUR DE MA VIE” at her "Billie and friends" Coachella party. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Billie spoke about the lack of singles released prior to the album. Instead of releasing a few of the tracks as singles, a promotional tool used by most artists, she wanted to keep them all together within the context of the album.
Leading up to the album’s release, Eilish announced listening parties in New York and Los Angeles. Tickets to these events were free but very limited. Each listening party took place in large arenas where Billie and Finneas, her brother/co-writer/producer, ran around the floor while the album was experienced by thousands of fans for the first time. The listening parties were a clever way of bringing together fans to enjoy the new music together. They were also recorded, mainly by Finneas, to be later used as music videos!
After all of the exciting build-up, the album dropped with overwhelming success. Not only did “LUNCH” top charts upon release, but fans raved over the album in its entirety. As a long-time fan, I will share some interesting information as well as my personal review of each track!
HIT ME HARD AND SOFT starts off strong with the opening song “SKINNY.” This track begins with a guitar and some soft hums. The melancholy lyrics read as if Billie is catching the listener up on her life. In fact, it feels as if the entire song is a greeting. SKINNY welcomes you to the album by reflecting on the past. During promotion of the album, Billie mentioned the desire to go back to the old ways of her first album, WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? Her first album involved out of studio recordings and a more private creative process. This song refers back to the early days of her career when Billie was our “secret”, and we “didn’t get to keep it.” I see this song as a perfect introduction to Billie’s current mindset, which is very reflective. This song questions if we all are still the same as we were when her first album was released by asking, “Do you still cry?” SKINNY closes out with a soft instrumental that is beautifully woven throughout the album.
“LUNCH” comes next, quite literally giving listeners whiplash with the tone change. This track is an upbeat sapphic love song of sorts. It was at this moment in the listening experience that I realized the truth of the album title; it does hit you hard and soft. At the time that this was being written, LUNCH was the only song with a music video, and boy was it a good one. The video is very reminiscent of 80s/90s hip-hop with a fishbowl lens and over-saturated colors. The liveliness of both the song and its music video has brought the track to the tops of numerous charts. I personally love Billie’s unique approach to pop songs, especially within the context of this particular song.
Third on the album is “CHIHIRO,” named after the main character in the Studio Ghibli film, Spirited Away. While I haven’t seen the movie, I can understand why this song has become a favorite of many fans. CHIHIRO has a haunting tone to it that borders the line between spooky fantasy and pure vibes. I’m not sure how to describe my personal experience with this song without using the word ascending. I find this song to be very reminiscent of the WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP days, as it tackles a purely fictional world with unexplained scenarios.
The next song, one of my personal favorites, is “BIRDS OF A FEATHER”. This is truly the summery pop-hit of the album. BIRDS OF A FEATHER is very upbeat with sweet tunes and hopeful lyrics of longtime friendship and loyalty. It’s definitely one of Billie’s sweeter songs, most likely dedicated to her brother or a childhood friend. Not only are her vocals stunning, but they carry a playful attitude concerning the person being addressed in the song. Easily a 10/10 song for me.
Of course, the following song is just more whiplash, as the tone quickly drops to soul-crushing sadness. “WILDFLOWER” opens with guitar strums that almost warn you that the song will be a bit devastating. It’s songs like these that Billie’s talent in conveying true emotion shines. She’s known for her sad music for a reason, and that reason is her impressive ability to describe negative feelings. Fans have speculated the subject of this song, but that information isn’t needed to understand the anxiety, guilt, and dread expressed through WILDFLOWER’s lyrics. Although it’s a sad song, WILDFLOWER has definitely become one of my favorites because of how raw it is. I especially love the end of the song, which consists of four very hushed verses. They feel a bit detached from the rest of WILDFLOWER, but they still add a beautiful finishing touch. Those verses remind me of Billie and Finneas’ desire to “drill deeper” on every song, as she explained in an interview with Zane Lowe.
Next up is “THE GREATEST.” Back to back sadness is all I can say to describe it. This song is another gut-wrenching one that conveys emotion just as well as WILDFLOWER. Billie’s pain and disappointment is belted out in this song in a way that it hasn’t ever been before. My favorite part of this song is the instrumental from SKINNY woven in during the bridge.
The seventh track, “L’AMOUR DE MA VIE”, opens with an unfamiliar vocal styling. When speaking about this song, Billie mentions how she feels that she was born for jazz music, which is expressed in the opening of L’AMOUR. The apathy and sass of this song is almost tangible as you listen to Billie "apologize" to an ex for lying. I personally love this style for her, and I will never pass up a song with a switch up in the middle, which L’AMOUR does wonderfully. Just over halfway through, jazz is replaced with… upbeat dance music? This shift is done skillfully and I will forever be grateful for the “OVER NOW EXTENDED EDIT,” which features just the last portion of the song with around a two and a half minute extension.
“THE DINER” follows with a haunting intro. After about twenty seconds of this song, it’s clear that Billie has either gone a bit coo-coo bananas, or she’s writing from a more fictional perspective. Thankfully, it’s the latter. THE DINER is told from the perspective of a stalker, more specifically someone who broke into her house back in 2021. Billie has gotten restraining orders for two different stalkers at this point, one of which broke in and left a threatening letter. The lyrics are truly chilling and executed with distorted vocals that reflect how intense the subject matter of the song is. Towards the end, the "stalker" says, “I memorized your number, now I call you when I please,” which is followed with a whispered phone number. If you text this number, you receive an automated response that encourages you to call it. Upon calling, a prerecorded message from Billie plays and the number can be used to receive updates about her releases. While the song is a bit spooky, I think the phone number is a super cool way of giving fans information about new releases. Overall, THE DINER is a heavy song, very reminiscent of "WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?," which automatically makes it a personal favorite of mine.
Next is “BITTERSUITE.” I don’t have much to say about this song other than pointing out the wonderful vocals. In my mind, BITTERSUITE is more of a build up to “BLUE,” the final track of the album. BITTERSUITE closes out with a tune that is familiar to most hardcore fans. It’s from an old, unreleased song of hers called “True Blue.”
BLUE opens with a new rendition of True Blue that shocked fans. The lyrics recount each song from the album by referencing previous lyrics, similarly to “goodbye” from WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP. About halfway through, the song does a bit of a 180, switching over to yet another unreleased song that was originally intended for Billie’s previous album, “Happier Than Ever.” This song, titled “Born Blue,” is very two-faced. It is introduced with angelic vocals addressing someone’s flaws and struggles. Then, the script flips. Billie’s voice deepens and becomes layered in distortion as she says, “But they could say the same about me.” I think the combination of two older songs is done perfectly, creating a new song, BLUE, that finishes off the album in a satisfying way. Of course, the song ends with Billie saying, “But when can I hear the next one?,” which opens up a whole new can of worms about a rumored second album release later this summer.
My hopes are high for more music, but I am absolutely delighted with this album’s release! It goes without saying that I’ll be listening to HIT ME HARD AND SOFT on repeat for months.
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