Artist: Billie Eilish
Album Title: Hit Me Hard and Soft
Genre: Alternative-pop and Rhythm and blues
Release Date: March 17, 2024
Rating: 9/10
After Billie Eilish rapidly rose through with the release of her first studio album “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?”, which received five Grammy Awards in 2019, the artist’s fans having been patiently waiting almost three years for the release of a new album. On March 17, 2024 their wishes came true, as every track on “Hit Me Hard and Soft” was released at the same time, each telling an important story. From the mellow sounds of “BLUE” to the addicting beat in “LUNCH”, Eilish guides her listeners through the album as they are left addicted to the lyrics and instrumentals in every song.
Each track in “Hit Me Hard and Soft” has its own genre and contains no repetition as Eilish and her brother and producer, FINNEAS, explored different acoustics and sounds that have launched each track into its own world. The transitions in specific songs even further this journey, emphasizing the importance of the order in this album and the connected story within it. All of these elements leave fans in a disarray as they keep these songs on repeat, attempting to decipher every intricate detail in all 10 tracks.
“The album is just a vibe and really nice to listen to. My favorite song is ‘THE DINER’, as the beat and lyrics are really good. The story behind it is interesting, especially compared to the other songs in the album. It’s definitely a unique song,” freshman Olivia Simon said.
Track 1: SKINNY
Rating: 8/10
The track “SKINNY” opens the new album in a vulnerable tone. This track is addressed towards Eilish’s own audience and fans as she sings about her own insecurities. Combined with her heavenly voice and harmonious instrumentals, Eilish begins the song in a melancholy tone as she sings about how “people say [she] looks happy, just because [she] got skinny” in order to illustrate the pressure she regularly experiences from her audience and their pointed views on her weight and looks.
However, she does sing that “…the old [her] is still [her] and maybe the real [her] and [she] thinks she’s pretty” demonstrating how Eilish has learnt to deal with these scrutinizing views from her fans and is able to accept herself no matter what her weight is or how she looks compared to the ideals set from her rising fame. She even ends the song singing the line “I love you for so long,” ending this track on an optimistic tone, showing how regardless of the countless songs she has written regarding the insecurities brought upon by her audience, she has learned to love the version of herself that others did not.Listeners of this first track are intensely transported to the world that the album “Hit Me Hard and Soft” carries within itself. This song is combined with beautiful instrumentals in the background that serve to uphold the melancholy tone of the track and carry the angelic-like voice of Eilish. As the song ends, it contains an instrumental finale which also makes an appearance in the tracks “THE GREATEST” and “BLUE.” This “outro” unexpectedly contains a seamless and ingenious transition into the next track “LUNCH”, a more upbeat and popular track among listeners.
Track 4: BIRDS OF A FEATHER
Rating: 9/10
The fourth song of Eilish’s album starts with playful melody that is covered by the singer’s soft vocals, which both creatively evoke a nostalgic and welcoming feel to the start of the song. As she begins to elongate her ending syllables in the first verse, Eilish sets the stage for a song that will pull the heartstrings of her listeners while maintaining an upbeat tune. In the second verse, Eilish moves to a personal level, where she speaks with a lover she so tightly holds on to, even begging them not to be stupid and ignore their polluted mind, both pleads to maintain a relationship that society might not deem acceptable.
Taking on the pre-chorus, Eilish projects the message that she will cherish her lover till her last breath by utilizing breathy singing that effectively conveys truth and desperation. Later, the chorus portrays a more melancholic tone, which is genius in the fact that it allows listeners to relate to it either with sadness or passion, depending on their personal experience. The magic of the song lies directly in this: Eilish’s original ability to create a track saturated with her unique emotions yet so applicable to and enjoyed by her audience.
“At first I didn’t understand why everyone liked it. I didn’t think she sounded like her other songs, since it was so different. After I heard it so many times on TikTok, I grew to like the chorus,” sophomore Avril Donner said.
Throughout the track, Eilish plays with the typical wedding vows and gently but repeatedly expresses her undying love for her partner. Through lyrics like “if you go, I’m goin’ too, ’cause it was always you“, she is able to evoke a more vulnerable sense of love that her fans can surely appreciate and relate to. Eilish’s vocals in the pre-chorus and post-chorus skillfully channel into and out of the chorus that has made the song so popular, an unnoticed yet powerful skill which is well-played by the singer and her producer. Ending the song with overlapping vocals and juxtapositions between her constant love and the uncertain weather, Eilish is able to masterfully present the idea that she has, does and will always love her partner.
Track 5: WILDFLOWER
Rating: 9/10
Immediately following the lighthearted tunes of “BIRDS OF A FEATHER”, “WILDFLOWER” puts a spin on the album’s mood by starting off slow and downcast, which still plays nicely with Eilish’s smooth and almost tender vocals. The gentle guitar and constant rhyme and rhythm gives a more spoken feel to the song, elevating the connection between the Elilish and her listener, who is now able to peer into her stream of consciousness.
The heart-throbbing chorus pulls in the listeners to feel Eilish’s despair and stress, with a slow and deep instrumental background that accompanies the singer’s true anguish. Eilish’s pain which is “like a fever” at seeing the friend, referred to as “she”, that Eilish betrays, is wholly conveyed throughout the repeated mentions of this line in the choruses. The second verse does a valid job at pointing at the feeling Eilish so passionately sings about, now with more upbeat instruments to imitate the move towards emotional maturity and acceptance Eilish can describe as wanting to put it all behind her.
“I think ‘WILDFLOWER’ is a really relatable song. You can interpret the lyrics to think about your past self, regrets or childhood. In this [song]…[Eilish] tells her story through her song with a really beautiful writing,” sophomore Lucia Astorga said.
The transition from the chorus to the bridge is handled perfectly as Eilish employs drawn-out yet high-pitched vocals and continued drumming to give way into the softly spoken experiences detailed in her bridge of “WILDFLOWER.” The final chorus parallels the earlier mentions of Eilish’s worries, now posing it as a question to her lover, asking “Do you see her in the back of your mind, in my eyes.” The rollercoaster of emotions posed throughout the track is now complete as Eilish has flawlessly graduated from questioning and feeling her own guilt to begging her lover to acknowledge it themself, putting that same blame on them.
Track 7: L’AMOUR DE MA VIE
Rating: 10/10
The title of this track means love of my life in French and like many songs throughout the album, it consists of two parts. The first part is a more retro-pop genre as it is crafted imaginatively to tell the story of a failed relationship. As shown by the lines “I told you a lie / I said you / You were the love of my life,” Eilish devotedly sings about how she lied to a former lover about her feelings toward them. She continues to sing about how her relationship made her feel obligated to express her love, even if it was not real as she emphasizes in the lines “For making me feel like it’d kill you if I tried to leave.” As the song continues, so does the story as the former lover moves on despite how they told Eilish she’d “never fall in love again because of [them].” This track has one of the most exceptional performances by Eilish in regards to her brave vocals, as she explores different pitches and beats throughout the song.
The second part of the song has it’s own title named “Over Now” which has its own electro-pop genre using auto tuned vocals. It contains a more upbeat tone and rhythmic beat as it innovatively shows another side of a breakup. In this part of the song Eilish speaks of a relationship that she is “glad it’s over now.” Combined with the first part, the latter half smartly brings a closure for the story and allows listeners to experience an array of feelings as they listen this song. Ending with “Over Now” leaves the listeners in shock as they experience a complete switch in the tone and emotion from her trademark vocals, towards a more upbeat, retro-pop genre.
Track 10: BLUE
Rating: 9/10
The last track on the album and maybe the one surrounded with the most conspiracies among the fans of Eilish, “BLUE” contains two parts, one called “True Blue”, the other “Born Blue.” The first part, “True Blue” is famous among the Eilish fandom as it was leaked back in 2022. Eilish had expressed her hopes for putting this song on her previous albums but never having the opportunity, however much to the surprise of many of her fans, she mashed two songs and formed them into the last track of the album, “BLUE.”
“True Blue” starts with a melancholic and eerily rhythmic beat and contains lyrics that point to every song from the new album including the lines “Birds of a feather, now I’m ashamed” giving tribute to her fourth track “BIRDS OF A FEATHER” among the other cleverly crafted lyrics. The song shifts smoothly towards the second part as Eilish vocalizes and the instrumental starts to become more mellow and slow as “Born Blue” plays.
“I honestly think the album was perfect, but if there was one thing I wish was on it, it’s the original version of the song ‘BLUE’. For a while, I remember listening to this song when it was still unreleased, so seeing that she finally finalized and published it was a really nice surprise. Yes, she published it, but she almost completely altered the song, so it’s mainly nothing like the original,” sophomore Gabriella Arango said.
“Born Blue” was meant to be on the Eilish’s album “Happier than Ever” until she ultimately decided it would not fit into her second album released. This song tells the story of an individual who lived in a home with parents who may have affected their actions in the future. Eilish sings the lines “he never learned to sympathize with anyone,” depicting this gloomy world as she sings about a father who never showed love. She masterfully tells her fans listening about how this individual was always a victim of these circumstances. Later on in the songs, in the bridge she sings the lines “You could the say the same about me” in order to showcase how she can relate to these troubles, especially ones related to gaining fame so early in life and how it can impact a person’s life.
Eilish ends the song and the album with this line “But when can I hear the next one?”. This ominous “outro” contributed to multiple fan theories, including the ilomilo theory. Within it, many fans believe Eilish will be releasing a double album soon in relation to the game ilomilo, which contains two characters, a blue one and red one. Fans believe “Hit Me Hard and Soft” is meant to represent the blue character while a red album will come out in order to represent the red character, building a special level of anticipation.
This album has given a lot for fans to look forward to, especially after waiting almost four years for Eilish’s reappearance in the music industry. Eilish has found a way to live up to the standards that many have given her especially from the awards her first studio album received. She has experimented with different vocals and instrumentals in order to create what some would call a masterpiece in order to sing about her stories and beliefs.
“Personally, I think my favorite song was ‘CHIHIRO.’ I loved how she started the song with a mellow, relaxed tune, and then transitioned it into a louder, more dramatic song. Per usual, [Eilish’s] voice was amazing, but I think she really outdid herself in the vocals in [‘CHIHIRO’],” sophomore Gabriella Arango said.
