Album review: teen pop star Billie Eilish returns with Happier Than Ever
Where does the world’s biggest pop star go with her second album, after her chart-topping debut set the music world alight two years ago?
Album reviews for week of August 14, 2021:
POP
Happier Than Ever
Billie Eilish
Darkroom/Interscope
The greatest challenge in following up the 2010s’ last blockbuster album is more straightforward than you think: it simply has to tell us something we don’t already know. Where it gets convoluted, then, is the framework. The artist responsible is Billie Eilish: one-time bedroom performer, now generational mouthpiece. Earlier this year, the 19-year-old American singer-songwriter was the subject of a lengthy documentary. Every detail of her life has been dissected over the past two years. Hell, we even know what time she was born (11.30am, December 18, 2001, for those curious). With this, it’s worth praising Eilish’s second album Happier Than Ever for being able to cut forcefully through the treacle by reverting paramount attention to Eilish the performer, rather than the celebrity. With her older brother Finneas again overseeing production and instrumentation, Eilish has forged an intriguing exploration of her sound. A delicate balance is struck whereby she never loses sight of her established palette, nor phones in a carefully crafted retread of it. There’s versatility and growth at play across the record: Lost Cause and Therefore I Am offer slinky bass amid playful kiss-offs; rave-ready Oxytocin and industrial-tinged NDA, meanwhile, plunge Eilish into some of her darkest, most immersive musical territory yet.
It’s a risky gauntlet, but one of the work’s most impressive traits is its consistency. Even with a near-hour-long runtime, it never comes across as exhaustive or repetitive. Rather, Eilish keeps listeners engaged with both her persona and her conviction. Not My Responsibility encapsulates both: a near-whisper from Eilish draws your attention amid the minimalist electronica undercurrent, but a simmering and seething diatribe about her public appearance maintains it. The acoustic detour of Your Power, too, strips the Eilish sound to the bone and allows for her trembling, raw emotion to efficiently resonate in the way such a fragile song should. In sum, what does the second album by one of the world’s most popular artists tell us? The Eilish phenomena is not that of a one-trick pony, nor an industry-plant hype machine. Her work with Finneas is far from over, and the siblings continue to bring out the best in one another. Perhaps most human of all, though, is how Happier Than Ever displays that even if you’re the biggest star in the world, you’re still learning on the job.
David James Young
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ROCK
Blue Weekend
Wolf Alice
Liberator Music
After winning the Mercury Prize in 2018, British band Wolf Alice sequestered itself in a converted church to jam, write and sculpt this polished, vibrant exploration of rock. Lipstick On The Glass and How Can I Make It OK? have shoegaze vibes with layered harmonies over pluckily strummed guitar, while Smile snarls in on metal-style riffs. Singer Ellie Rowsell moves between close-miked confessional croons and soaring chorus melodies. By further pushing its creative range, Wolf Alice continues to impress, most notably on Safe From Heartbreak, which falls somewhere between a hymn and a nu-folk ballad. Relentless touring has sharpened the band’s synergy, which is evident throughout album No.3.
Cat Woods
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COUNTRY
The Art of Letting Go
Andrew Swift
ABC Music
You may have heard of “boyfriend country”: pristine, aw-shucks boys with more jawline than personality fawning over their blue-jean baby amidst snap tracks and polished twang. Andrew Swift, in his 30s and a clear top-bloke charmer, feels like its logical advancement. He’s “husband country”: all the romance intact but more settled and mature by approach. The Art of Letting Go, his third, was largely co-written with hit-making Nashville types. Stateside ambitions are clear, from Swift’s quasi-American accent to the refined Matt Fell production. These songs could have been sung by any contemporary country male, however. As its cover literally portrays, Swift is all hat and no cattle.
David James Young
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JAZZ
The Early Years 1970-1972
The Storyville Jazzmen
Australian Jazz Museum
In 1970 the so-called “Australian jazz explosion” was under way in Sydney, and many great musicians deserted Melbourne and flocked to the lucrative NSW music industry. This double-album shows that the arguably second-string players remaining behind, such as the Storyville Jazzmen, were good enough to keep Melbourne traditional jazz alive, and achieve considerable popularity. Their four horns in the frontline produced an unusually fat sound, and their clever head arrangements transformed more contemporary compositions into a style which located their music in the mainstream. Their impressive early recording efforts here certainly laid the groundwork for their success in future years.
Eric Myers
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CLASSICAL
Nocturnes
Emily Sun and Andrea Lam
ABC Classic
A decade ago, a brilliant, headstrong and disobedient young Sydney violinist captured our imaginations in Bob Connolly’s film Mrs Carey’s Concert. Today, London-based Emily Sun is on the verge of international super-stardom. And what a captivating album is her debut recording, Nocturnes, comprising all-French repertoire. With sonatas by Franck and Faure as cornerstones, Sun and her formidable piano accompanist, New York-based Andrea Lam, shine in gems by Debussy, Lily Boulanger and Edith Piaf’s signature La vie en rose. Recorded in Sydney last December, the 12 tracks here reveal the empathy and sensitivity of this extraordinary couple of Australian expats. Sun has a silvery tone, refined and somewhat understated, without resorting to the syrupy excesses that are sometimes encountered in this repertoire. Lam, meanwhile, communicates an assuredness born of reflection on the ethos of the works themselves. Together, they accompany us through the sonic gardens of Monet. This listener can hardly wait for their second release together, whenever that might arise. And if I could be so bold to make a couple of requests for the next set: the sonatas of Debussy and Ravel, perhaps, with a cheeky dash of Satie?
Vincent Plush