“HIT ME HARD AND SOFT” – Billie Eilish

Album: HIT ME HARD AND SOFT

Artist: Billie Eilish

Year: 2024

Genre: Alt-Pop, Electropop

Grade: A-

Perhaps no other artist has shaped the sound of 2020s music more than Billie Eilish, which is a bold claim to make but consider the impact: a precocious 17-year-old releases a masterpiece of a debut that garners equal critical and commercial success, fully establishing “pop” and “teenage girls” as an art/artist combo to be taken seriously. Without Billie, there’d be no Olivia Rodrigo, no Doja Cat, arguably no Taylor Swift as we think of her today.

Of course, this is all a very simplistic and generalized assumption (and ignores the contributions of countless other art-pop stars from Lana Del Rey to Lorde to Béyonce). Then again, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? really was that much of a game-changer. For better or worse, the 2020s are the decade of poptimism, and albums that were previously and perhaps unfairly dismissed are now where the general populace looks first for profound artistic statements.

However, poptimism’s fatal flaw is that commercialism often trumps quality. That’s why Taylor Swift’s THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT was so polarizing: sure, it broke sales records and made millions, but the music itself was bland and banal. Perhaps it was a good wake-up call for new-age critics: not every pop album will stand the test of time. Which is all a longwinded way to say that Eilish’s third album, HIT ME HARD AND SOFT, isn’t necessarily the masterpiece that fans might desperately want it to be. It’s good, and that’s enough.

The album finds Eilish further refining her hushed downtempo style, but the biggest takeaway is that she’s made leaps and bounds as a singer. With HIT ME HARD AND SOFT, she’s become a bona-fide R&B chanteuse while still retaining all the dynamism and dreaminess of her previous whispery approach. Her vocals slide in perfectly with brother Finneas O’Connell’s eclectic production, which takes more influence from electronic music than ever before: lush yet chilling, icy yet lavish, beautiful yet dark, sinister yet heartfelt.

Like her previous albums, HIT ME HARD AND SOFT takes time to grow. It wasn’t until the fifth or sixth listen that the LP finally clicked for me. Once it does, it’s hard to put down, which suggests that Eilish’s music — unlike that of her main pop girl contemporaries — may indeed stand the test of time.

NOTES & CHORDS

• When it comes to crafting albums as a cohesive artistic statement, Eilish has a knack for going out with a bang. The final pairing of “BITTERSUITE” and “BLUE” is incredibly cathartic and intriguingly ambiguous.

• An annoying poptimism trend: capitalizing album and song titles so that they stand out in a playlist. Advertising meets art in the streaming age.

• HIT ME HARD AND SOFT lulls in the middle with the folk-influenced “WILDFLOWER” and “THE GREATEST,” but even those songs are rewarding after listening to the album several times.

• Love “THE DINER” and its classic Billie sound of mischievous trap beats with playfully sinister, whispered vocals. It’s like 2019 all over again!

• I also love the string motif that is repeated in various songs throughout the album. It’s like the 1970s all over again!

• Plenty of beat switch-ups throughout the album, from the obvious triplicate of “BITTERSUITE” to the unexpected EDM conclusion of “L’AMOUR DE MA VIE.” And, of course, the multi-movement “BLUE,” which starts off anthemic and upbeat before moving to something much stranger and darker.

---