Hit Me Hard And Soft: An Album Review

I think Billie Eilish is one of the most creative artists right now in the pop landscape, but this album is definitely not as good as When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? This record is still pretty solid, and definitely an album that is instrumentally rich, and has an honest vibe.

First of all the album cover. Wow. Its strong, its distinct. Its almost metaphoric as sometimes I feel like im drowning listening to her music. You see the problem I have with Billie is that listening to her feels like Chinese water torcher, she gives me small droplets of sound and energy but out of nowhere I feel like im drowning from way too much energy. The tension on a lot of her music is a bit of a mess but I also think its pleasing sometimes.

I think review is going to be a little different. I normally review every single song, but I think ill just talk about songs that stood out for me in this record. First of all I’ll talk about some tracks that stood out to me.

Bittersuite

With its clever play on words, the music perfectly matches its name. What seems to be groovy elevator music turns into an elevator straight to hell. The electronic stabs into the groove line perfectly encapsulates the pain being evoked in this record and keep the theme of sadness and an overall a mundane attitude. Its ending is honestly such a delight as it leads on to the ending track and honestly my favourite song.

BLUE

Its so melancholy holy shit. I feel like my introduction to this record was wrong. This album is something more than Billie Eilish’s early works. Her voice is beautiful and the instrumentals are stylish. Its not really a switch from her more common noise but its still different nonetheless. It seems more spacy, and airy. Theres a lot of empty space all over the track and the main album. Its stylish and unique. Sometimes the silence even elevate the tracks.

Another thing I really like are the switches in between each song and even in the song. The beats come in so smoothly and the mixing on this record is a delight. The mood switches in the album constantly keeps me guessing and I love it. This is probably now one of my favourite Billie Eilish albums and a solid addition to her discography.

I don’t think there are necessarily any “weak” tracks, its more like the tracks feel too empty. Its like, the music isn’t bad, its more like a meh. Sometimes its just way too empty and slow for me to form an opinion bound by enjoyment or disdain. An example of this would be THE GREATEST. Like every single time id feel like shed destroy the tension with a full on orchestral blast it never happens. She edges the tension on the track way too much where it just feels way too empty. Only in the end does it go ham but sometimes it just feels too late and my excitement is over. The music isn’t moving, its literally dead. And for that to happen is just a little annoying. A lot of the tracks blur together as well, with its constant dead vibe, every song becomes mashed up into a massive ball of sadness. Very rarely did any of the tracks really step out of their shell and show me what they had.

 Despite these small problems, Hit Me Hard and Soft was still an enjoyable listen and I love the passion and uniqueness towards Billie’s music, as well as the creativity and influence she has on the pop music industry.

Hit Me Hard and Soft is a strong 8.