Billie Eilish: Hit Me Hard and Soft
American singer-songwriter Billie Eilish released her third studio album Hit Me Hard and Soft today. Benjamin Zulkifli listens to all 10 tracks from the album and gives his consequential opinion to how it affects him.
American singer-songwriter Billie Eilish released her third studio album Hit Me Hard and Soft today. Benjamin Zulkifli listens to all 10 tracks from the album and gives his consequential opinion to how it affects him.
After listening to the whole album in one sitting, I wondered how I could wisely interpret Billie Eilish’s latest studio album.
While it may only take 43 minutes, there are many animated elements in this sorrowful masterpiece.
To begin with, there is enough melancholy to fill anyone’s appetite. While it is poetic, its symphony of mixed elements are surprisingly poignant. Eilish takes her time when it comes to telling us her story.
This is a songwriter that truly expresses today’s modern-age sensibility. The lyricism found in her journey through grand heartbreaks are recounted alongside the regular and elemental beats. Vibrant and timeless, their musical ideas colour the various parts most beautifully expressed in L’amour de ma vie – perhaps my personal favourite so far.
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Every song provides a great humming for the day. Journal-like and equally sexy, Eilish is unpretentious and musical in her Lilliputian ways – the soft speeches, the passive-like declaration of melancholy is her greatest art that resonates greatly with listeners.
Here, we celebrate Billie Eilish’s deliberate thoughtfulness in the art of poetry. It was her voice at certain times that comes to the fore, but my adulation goes to her lyrical poetry. Words and music have merged with our sight and sensation. And for a moment, I thought about the lyrics of David Bowie.
The 8th track in the album The Diner is as much fun and mysterious as how I’ve experienced her other songs. Thrillingly, Eilish’s rant is almost unbearable, but if I am to not listen to every single word she sings, I could almost hear a meditative chant.
The last track Blue was an assured choice to wrap up. It ties in thematically with the vinyl and everything visual. Resolutely, a mention of the title of the fourth track reminds us that all things must come to an end.
The 43-minute album is released through Darkroom and Interscope Records.
In support of the album, a world tour was also announced late last month. It is set to start this coming September at the Videotron Centre in Quebec City, Canada.
