I remember when I first heard the song “Ocean Eyes” by Billie Eilish when I was a senior in high school. Her voice was so soft and haunting. Don’t Smile at Me, her first EP, released about a year later and I fell in love. Two years later she released WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO and I feel like that is when I realized how much of an idol Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas O’Connell were going to be. They won Grammy after Grammy while staying humble and inspired.
Photo Credit: Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times
I thought that this was some of the most amazing music we could get from this duo until their latest release of their album Hit Me Hard and Soft. The catalog of this album is some of the rawest, well-done songs that they have ever released. Billie and Finneas have talked about how they always thought they were onto something with everything they released, but it wasn’t until this album that they realized what making real authentic music was all about.
Right of the bat the first track “Skinny” had me in tears the first time I listened. The beauty about music is that although songs come from one person and someone’s intimate and authentic feelings, the way that millions of people are able to listen and feel the same or different feelings towards one song. “Skinny” is a great example of that where the song reflects insecurities and falling in love, she probably has her own story for it, and I have my own. Another track that stands out to me is “The Greatest” which starts as a soft, melodic song where she sings about a relationship and attempting to be perfect. We then hear something in the back half of this song that we have not really gotten from Billie yet and it’s her belting voice. The climax runs over this song and we hear the passionate sounds of her expressing that she is the greatest for putting up with this said relationship or situation.
Each song on this album really hits you hard and soft and then really throws you on the ground and then picks you up and gives you a soft kiss on the forehead. It is Billie and Finneas’s greatest album of all time and I would literally give an arm, leg and up to five teeth to go see Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour.
