At 22, Eilish is an old soul forging a whole new sound

In her confident third album, the star borrows stylistic touches from decades past while singing about coming out, body issues and lesbian lust

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

What is it like to be a home-schooled kid from Los Angeles who started writing songs with her elder brother, Finneas, at 13, only to witness those songs, with their unlikely blend of bossa nova, musical theatre, Beatlesesque pop and gothic drama, becoming massive global hits? On her third album Billie Eilish lets us know, while also dealing with coming out, body issues and the inescapable pressures of being a role model to millions of people she has never met. And she’s still only 22.

The maturity of Eilish’s vision is on display, as is her refusal to take the easy route towards conventional pop. Skinny features nothing more than acoustic guitar and a touch of strings against Eilish’s light, pure voice, as she deals with other people’s concerns about her weight, feeling like a bird in a cage, and the possibility that she may have already passed her career peak, all within the framework of a sweet love song. Lunch is an unequivocal expression of lesbian lust set to a thumping bass and a sultry funk beat. This is going to be a staple in gay bars for years to come.

Eilish has displayed impressive confidence by making such a characterful work at the height of her career. Photo: Supplied/Universal.

For the most part Eilish plays it cool. Vocals are subdued, arrangements exhibit classical elegance, expressions of love are romantic rather than explicit. Birds of a Feather floats along on a cloud of infatuation, while The Greatest is a light jazz tune about unrequited love that builds into a yearning power ballad.

For all Eilish’s global popularity, this mostly acoustic album is strangely out of step with the brash, synthetic mood of contemporary pop. Even when she heads toward dance music on Chihiro, she does so in a way that is more suited to chilling on a beach than getting messy at a rave.

There is also a rather traditional quality, despite its S&M-leaning title, to the album. It is ten songs long: a rarity for a leading pop star in an age when chucking out lots of tracks at once means dominating streaming services on the week of release. There are stylistic touches from decades past: The Diner has an oompah-oompah sound that would not be out of place on the soundtrack to Cabaret and the gliding dream-pop in Blue recalls the hazy, empty atmosphere of Twin Peaks.

Eilish has displayed impressive confidence by making such a characterful work at the height of her career. She may be addressing young concerns, but she’s an old soul. That comes across in an album that builds an impressionistic world that’s entirely her own.

★★★★