By: James Southworth
Rating: 4/5 Stars
Billie Eilish is yet another artist I can add to the list of artists I should've discovered earlier, and am now kicking myself for not having done so. I was absolutely enraptured by this singer when I heard the single "you should see me in a crown", a song that had this really creepy horror vibe to it that you hardly ever see in any type of pop music. Eilish has been absolutely blowing up lately, with many of her songs cracking the Billboard Hot 100 in quick succession. This is an instance where I'd say that the concept of the Internet and streaming being able to blow up anyone is a good thing. After hearing "...crown" as well as "bury a friend", Eilish's debut album "WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?" became one of the releases I was looking most forward to in 2019. Thankfully, this release does not disappoint, as it is one of the most unique pop albums I've heard in quite some time, with a consistent atmosphere and compelling lyrical moments.
This album gets off to quite a great start with "bad guy", which is an undeniable banger. This is probably the catchiest song on the album, and the one that comes closest to what you would call a conventional pop cut. But even then, "coventional" is sort of stretching it. Billie using the almost throwaway word "duh" as a hook seems like it just shouldn't work, but for some reason it does. I have not been able to get that phrase out of my head, because of the way it leads into this cool electronic melody. This song sees Billie doing something she does quite often on this release: putting on a dark, menacing persona that is also quite fun. It's clear that Eilish has fun with acting like the bad guy, and that only helps this song work that much more. The vocal effects this track uses at times to make her sound like a monstrous entity is pretty freaking cool as well. I can't go without talking about Billie's brother FINNEAS, who is the producer and co-writer on every song here. His production is crisp and clean, and brings a vibe to this album that just works. You can tell him and Billie have a real chemistry together and just click. After this great opener, we get the cut "xanny", which is considerably darker and more serious than the previous cut. Here, Billie talks about the very real problem of drug addiction taking people's lives. She puts out a clear message here that there are other ways of having fun at a party besides taking Xanax. The sound of this track is intriguing to me, as it combines an almost jazzy piano with some booming electronics that swell in and out of both of your ears. It creates a soundscape that's interesting to hear and helps grab your attention. "You should see me in a crown" still remains to be one of my absolute favorites from the album. This song is refreshingly different from anything you'll hear on the radio with its glass shattering sound effects and Billie really letting her villainous side come out in full force. The way the drumming comes into this cut is really great as well.
"All the good girls go to hell" has Billie's more satirical side come out, as she takes religious imagery and upends it in ways that are admittedly clever to me. The opening line "My Lucifer is lonely" is an instantly memorable phrase on this album as a whole, and indicates to you exactly what the rest of this song is gonna be about. I just love how fun the song is, and the peppy piano beat is almost irresistible to nod your head along to. This album takes quite a sudden turn in its second half, starting with "when the party's over", a ballad that sent immediate chills up my spine. This song is unbelievably beautiful, and is probably the most obvious showcase of Billie's vocal talents. It emphasizes on her voice more than the musical soundscape, which helps hone in the focus on a breakup that was clearly tough to go through. This feels very different from your typical breakup song, though: the pain is very palpable, and the anguish and vocal cadences Billie has just can't be denied. "My strange addiction" was a track that immediately caught my attention when I first heard it due to it sampling the episode "Threat Level Midnight" from "The Office". The fact that a sampling from "The Office" was used in this song and worked in its own weird way is deserving of an accolade. I just love the way Billie uses dissonant vocal patterns in this song to convince the listener of the idea that this particular obsession she has with a certain person is weird. After this, we get my favorite song on the album, as well as one of my favorite songs of the year so far: "bury a friend". If there was ever a song that sounded like it comes straight out of a horror movie, this one is it. Billie speaks in the perspective of the monster under your bed, and it works SO well. This "monster" is clearly meant to be a symbol for everyone's collective fears, and it is straight up unsettling. The sounds this song feel like they came right out of a haunted house, such as the sound of a razor or an electronic effect that makes it sound like someone is screaming for help. It's sort of hard to describe, but I love it. The lyrics throughout this song are excellent, and the chorus is catchy in a very unconventional way. "Ilomilo" is an oddly good follow-up to the previous cut, having this low-key dance pop vibe to it. This song brings out a different styling from Billie that I'd like to see more of in the future. The album ends off with two really good cuts in "listen before i go" (an indescribably haunting song about someone contemplating suicide) and "i love you". The latter of the two cuts is particularly great, as it has a beautiful acoustic guitar, and probably the most memorably haunting lyrics on the album: "We fall apart as it gets dark/I'm in your arms in Central Park/There's nothing you could do or say/I can’t escape the way, I love you". The way this song swells is amazing, and the vocal chemistry between Eilish and FINNEAS here is pristine.
There are a couple of negative points on this album, although they are mostly not significant detractors to this release's overall quality. The fourteen second opener "!!!!!!" is just a little bit stupid and unnecessary. Thankfully "bad guy" is awesome enough to make me almost entirely forget about this cut, but it still just didn't need to be here. I'm just a bit perplexed about why it was included. "Wish you were gay" had some controversy around it being homophobic, but I don't really see it that way. The song still feels cliched as a hopeless romantic cut, though. It feels a bit immature, which makes sense, because Billie is only sixteen years old. This song still just didn't really work for me though; it sort of comes and goes, leaving little impression on me. I keep on going back on forth on how I feel about "8". There's this weird vocal filter put on Billie where it pitch shifts her to make her sound like she's three years old in some places. I don't think it quite works on the way that FINNEAS intended for it to, as it sounds sort of unsettling rather than cute. Or maybe it is meant to sound unsettling. The fact that I just can't tell what they were going for is what ultimately brings the song down for me. "Goodbye" feels like a gimmicky way to end the album by just reciting certain lyrical bits from every song in backwards order. The lyrical bits ultimately don't connect and make the song feel senseless. "I love you" would've been a far more impactful way to end the release.
It doesn't surprise me too much that there are already a lot of people quick to call out Billie Eilish as overrated; some have even theorized that she's an industry plant. I'm not sure how anyone could think the latter: Eilish is rather different for the pop scene, and this album actually takes quite a few risks. I am a bit biased to horror movies, so the fact that this album sounds like it could be the soundtrack to a horror movie in several places is a really cool concept to me. The intriguing lyrical themes and some legitimately powerful deep cuts help lift this album beyond being just a concept; instead, it's fully realized. Billie is young, and the fact that this is what she put out makes me really excited to see how she grows as an artist in the future. I really just hope people continue to pay attention to her. This debut is a great release, and has potential to make my top albums of 2019. Check it out!
Favorite Songs: "bury a friend", "you should see me in a crown", "i love you", "bad guy", "when the party's over", "my strange addiction"
Least Favorite Songs: "8", "wish you were gay"
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