Review: Billie Eilish has released the album of the year with Hit Me Hard and Soft

The 22-year-old and nine-time Grammy winner didn’t release any singles from her highly-anticipated third studio album because she wants us to hear her whole love story.

ALBUM REVIEW: Listening to Hit Me Hard and Soft is like sitting on the floor with a close friend and pouring an entire bottle of wine into glasses as she pours out her heart(break).

Billie Eilish downloads her whole story, start to finish.

The 22-year-old and nine-time Grammy winner did not release any singles from her highly-anticipated third studio album, which is out today (Friday), because none of its 10 tracks are intended to be consumed in isolation.

Eilish has gifted us her most intimate, confessional, and genre-defying album yet.

“I fell in love with a friend for the first time,” she reveals in track one, Skinny.

“21 took a lifetime. People say I look happy, just because I got skinny.

“The old me is still the real me. And I think she’s pretty.”

Billie Eilish releases her third studio album, Hit Me Hard and Soft, on May 17. Picture: Supplied/Universal.

In Skinny, Eilish sets the tone for her entire album. She showcases her vocal maturity with flawless runs and the angelic falsetto that made her famous in Ocean Eyes — belting out her final lyrics to an orchestral swell that would feel right at home on any Disney soundtrack.

She’s telling us, you’re about to hear a love story.

Hit Me Hard and Soft charts how she fell in love, all the potential she foresaw (and grieved) in a lover, all the bitter(sweet) things that she said to them, and all the things she wishes she’d said.

Each song, written and recorded with her brother and longtime collaborator Finneas, does exactly as the title suggests: hits you hard and soft both lyrically and sonically, while blending and melding the boundaries of ballads and pop.

Eilish on the June cover of British Vogue in 2021.

Eilish at the 96th Oscars Nominees Luncheon. Picture: Getty Images

Eilish and Finneas harmonise modern production techniques with live music and a lot of 80s synth. They flawlessly integrate computer-generated sounds and effects, such as vocal manipulation, with live instruments throughout.

“She’s the headlights, I’m the deer. She might be the one,” Eilish states.

From her meditation on fame and its impact on her body image, Eilish moves onto Lunch — the sultry and upbeat track she performed at Coachella.

Eilish performs at Coachella last month. Photo: Getty Images

In stark contrast to the brief comments the singer has given about her sexuality in interviews, Hit Me Hard and Soft is her diary opened up to the world. The lyrics are intentionally explicit so that there can be no question that her lover is a woman.

In track seven, Eilish even beats her own record for the length of a break up anthem.

Happier Than Ever, 4 minutes and 58 seconds, is succeeded as the longest song in Eilish’s discography by the 5 minute and 34 second ode to the girl who broke her heart.

In L’amour de ma vie, Eilish asks for an apology.

Eilish releases her third studio album, Hit Me Hard and Soft, on May 17. Picture: Supplied/Universal.

“You said you’d never fall in love again, because of me. Then you moved on, immediately,” she sings softly. “But I wish you the best for the rest of your life.”

About half way through the song, you may feel like you’ve accidentally knocked your phone and selected a remixed version of the same track. You haven’t.

Eilish changes up the sound completely, as she reflects on the rollercoaster of trying to move on from someone that you know ultimately wasn’t good for you.

When she chops and changes from a ballad to an 80s dance beat, we feel her energy shift. She’s done crying on the floor, and it’s time to get up and dance.

The singer confesses she thought she was “depressed” or “losing her mind” after this break up, but that ultimately, she lied because this person isn’t the love of her life.

Although, she’s “still so blue,” and doesn’t entirely mean it when she says she’s “over” her.

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Originally published as Review: Billie Eilish has released the album of the year with Hit Me Hard and Soft