I was first introduced to Billie Eilish’s music through my sister-in-law. We got home from work one afternoon in ‘17 or ‘18 to find her lying on the couch with YouTube on the TV and one of Eilish’s earliest songs (probably “Ocean Eyes”) filling the room like a siren’s call. I made sure to ask who the artist was and listened to the EP within the next few days. It was very clear to me that she was an artist I needed to follow, so she got added to my list.
Now, five years after her debut album released to massive acclaim, I think it’s safe to say I was right. While I didn’t love her sophomore effort in 2021, she is still, deservedly, one of the most influential figures in Pop; she has, as of the time of this writing, broken the 100 million monthly listeners barrier on Spotify.
Hit Me Hard and Soft is her third full-length effort, and it truly feels like an evolution in her sound; or, perhaps, a realization of the growth that Eilish has been working at all this time. It has the energy of her debut and the emotionality of her second. It strikes an incredible balance; the lo-fi vibes are exquisite, but still carry that energy effectively. The accompaniment waxes and wanes between actual instrumentation and synthesized elements, and everything works together, sometimes in incredibly subtle ways. This was also noted, I found, in The Guardian’s review of the album; as writer Alexis Petridis put it:
The production, as ever by Eilish and brother Finneas O’Connell, deals in subtlety and hidden detail: muffled backing vocals and sound effects are buried so deep in the mix that they’re only really noticeable if you’re wearing headphones, like the aural equivalent of catching something out of the corner of your eye.
This was a point I had planned to make, but I like the way Petridis says it. During the almost two weeks now that I’ve been trying to get this review written, I’ve listened to it many times through many devices, and it sounds good everywhere.
But it does sound best on headphones simply because they allow you to pick out those more subtle elements.1 And I have to stress that every little detail in the mix is additive — there’s nothing there that doesn’t enhance the song.
I also need to stress the way that the composition subtly reinforces the album’s energy. “Lunch” is the only song here that is truly, overtly energetic. Every other track on the album is mid-tempo, at best, but there’s always some driving element which buoys the composition. In the early minutes of “The Greatest”, it’s the easy, syncopated groove of the acoustic guitar. In other songs, the synth or the beat or Billie’s vocals take over that duty, but there’s always something. And that gives the album a more lively, vibrant feel than the actual mood and tone of the songs would normally be able to manage.
Eilish still leans heavily into her signature Whisperpop style for the vast majority of the album, but there are songs where she sings more fully, such as “Birds of a Feather”. Even then, though, her vocals are very breathy and emotive. That emotionality is really the defining strength of Whisperpop, and it’s on full display throughout Hit Me Hard and Soft.
Because (shocker): this is a breakup album. “Skinny” and “Lunch” serve as an abbreviated setup, with the former briefly discussing Eilish’s evolving state of mind and self-perception, and the latter serving to stand in for, basically, an entire relationship. The album then pivots immediately at the start of track 3, “Chihiro”, which is named for the protagonist of Studio Ghibli’s Spirited Away.
We’ve seen so many breakup albums lately, and I’ve seen better implementations….. but I’ve also seen worse. And the quality of each and every track on the album completely overwhelms everything else. I get chills at several points — every time, on every listen.
Hands down, this is Eilish’s best LP to-date. It really feels like a full realization of all of the potential and expectation which has been laid on her shoulders for years now. She has always been capable of great songs, but this time everything came together for a great album.
Rating: Purple
Around the 3:45 mark in “Chihiro”, for example, there are really faint, distant backing vocals that hardly register, even when you’re listening for them.