The final time NME spoke to Billie Eilish, change was afoot. On the eve of her large Glastonbury headline look in 2022, she stated that she was “looking for myself once more” and that she “felt fairly trapped within the persona that individuals had of me”. Id crises should not unusual in Billie’s profession; in reality, they’ve supplied a lot of its motor. 2019’s zeitgeist-busting debut ‘When We All Fall Asleep, The place Do We Go?’ encapsulated the pre-pandemic Gen Z expertise: it was anxious and unsure about rising up, and revolutionary in its abrasive, bedroom-pop sound. Then got here ‘Happier Than Ever’, a sprawling – if considerably kitschy – epic that was aesthetically impressed by old-school cool and basic songwriters like Julie London. She swapped her dishevelled, neon clothes for pin-up clothes and bleach blonde hair.
No surprise, then, that in 2023 the 22 year-old was ruminating on ‘What Was I Made For?’, her Oscar-winning contribution to the Barbie soundtrack. “Suppose I forgot methods to be comfortable / One thing I’m not, however one thing I might be”, she purred, a track supposedly about Margot Robbie’s titular character however was as a lot directed at its creator. Who was Billie Eilish, it contemplated, and what was her objective? Disruptive power anointed as a frontrunner for her environmental-wary technology, or just one other younger individual looking for their place on this planet?
‘Hit Me Onerous and Gentle’ is a portrait of who she is now, and who she may go on to turn out to be. The album’s no-single rollout and occasional snippets – both at Coachella DJ units or in Heartstopper soundtracks – have provided few clues, and a Rolling Stone profile provided, nicely, maybe somewhat an excessive amount of for some individuals’s tastes. However nonetheless, it was clear that she needed to get private: “This complete course of has felt like I’m coming again to the lady I used to be [in 2019]. I’ve been grieving her. This isn’t an album about happiness, however there’s at the least glimmers of the complete human expertise for as soon as.
‘Skinny’ follows Eilish’s pattern of utilizing the opening observe to set the desk for the remainder of the album. First there was the 13-second goofy skit ‘!!!!!!!’ on her debut, encapsulating the way it feels to make an album at dwelling along with your greatest pal, older brother Finneas. Then ‘Happier Than Ever’’s curtain-raiser ‘Getting Older’, was a wistful, sighing opener about the way it feels to develop up as essentially the most talked-about teenager on the planet
This time, it’s about confidence and self-reflection: “Individuals say I look comfortable, simply because I acquired skinny / However the outdated me continues to be me, possibly the actual me, and I feel she’s fairly”. She quickly engages together with her personal narrative very like Taylor Swift and Ariana Grande did on their current albums: “Am I appearing my actual age now? Am I already on the best way down? Once I step off stage I’m a fowl in a cage and a canine in a canine pound”. It finishes with a stunning orchestral flourish akin to her work on Bond track ‘No Time To Die’ with Hans Zimmer. It’s an outstanding track, considered one of her greatest ever.
‘Hit Me Onerous and Gentle’, then, is undeniably brighter in sound and extra assured in its execution. ‘Lunch’ is a return to the identical pulsing beat of ‘Unhealthy Man’ and ‘Bury A Buddy’, interspersing a guitar riff with the identical kind of ravey beats she dabbled with tentatively on second album deep reduce ‘Oxytocin’. ‘Lunch’ is specific, too, in Eilish’s “cravings” for the primary time, significantly since she’s spoken extra brazenly about embracing her queer identification: “I may eat that lady for lunch / Yeah, she dances on my tongue / Tastes like she may be the one”.
‘Birds of Feather’ is a love track written from the attitude of somebody who lastly is aware of the way it feels to be valued, although it won’t be the comfortable ending she needs. Amidst considered one of her greatest vocal performances, she is devastated even when she doesn’t fairly sound it: “I don’t know what I’m crying for, I don’t suppose I may love you extra”. ‘The Best’ is a sequel to ‘Happier Than Ever’’s title observe, a delicate construct that explodes with a guitar solo ending and craving; this time, the explosive rage is changed with thankless acts of service to maintain a accomplice .
What makes ‘Hit Me Onerous and Gentle’ so fulfilling is its ruthlessness – the ten tracks are the fewest she’s had on an album, however they’re simply as experimental and playful as her earlier work. ‘L’Amour De La Vie’ – Love of My Life – begins off with a smokey, Laufey-esque vocal supply, then flips into ‘Blinding Lights’-aping ‘80s synth pop. ‘Blue’, in the meantime, has one thing of Lana Del Rey’s ‘A&W’ in its willingness to flip the script and straddle two distinctly totally different sonic universes, from radio-friendly pop-rock, to sparse, murky digital beats. Few moments are wasted, although ‘Bittersuite’ exists primarily as a manufacturing flex for Billie and Finneas, and ‘The Diner’ is quirky, if considerably pedestrian subsequent to a few of these songwriting odysseys.
Billie got here into this course of with aspirations to search out herself, creatively and personally: ‘Hit Me Onerous and Gentle’ stays distinctly distinctive, a portrait of a singular expertise getting into younger maturity, exploring her queerness and experiencing the emotional thrill and (typically) disaster of chasing ardour or falling in love. In attempting to jot down an album for herself, she’s made one that can resonate tougher than something she’s accomplished earlier than.
Particulars
- Launch date: Could 17, 2024
- File label: Darkroom
