Hot off her second Academy Award win for the Barbie song ‘What Was I Made For?’, Billie Eilish has debuted her third studio album, titled ‘Hit Me Hard and Soft’. The song ‘Lunch’ is the lead single of the album, which contains 10 tracks and runs for 43 minutes. Eilish has previously won acclaim (and multiple Grammys) for her breakout album ‘When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?’ and its equally celebrated follow-up, ‘Happier Than Ever’. The new album continues the pop sensation’s creative collaboration with her brother, Finneas O’Connell.
Early reviews for ‘Hit Me Hard and Soft’ have been universally positive, with the album scoring a 95/100 approval rating on ‘Metacritic’. In a five-star review, The Independent’s Helen Brown wrote that the album ‘whispers its way through a marvelous maze of music to deliver some big emotional wallops’. In another five-star review, The Telegraph’s Neil McCormick wrote, “Eilish has made something rich, strange, smart, sad and wise enough to stand comparison with that classic (Joni Mitchell’s ‘Blue’), a heartbreak masterpiece for her generation and the ages.” The Guardian’s Alexis Petridis wrote that the album offers ‘evidence that, among the ranks of mega-selling pop stars, Billie Eilish remains a fascinating law unto herself’.
Promotions for the new album began when the public started noticing billboards bearing lyrics crop up around cities in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. She previewed three songs from the album, including “Lunch”, at the Coachella festival, and told Rolling Stone in an interview that she would not be releasing singles to promote the album. “I don’t like singles from albums,” she said. “Every single time an artist I love puts out a single without the context of the album, I’m just already prone to hating on it. I really don’t like when things are out of context. This album is like a family: I don’t want one little kid to be in the middle of the room alone.”
The album deals with Eilish’s queer identity, and her struggles with depression. She told Rolling Stone, “My whole life, I’ve never been a happy person, really. I’ve been a joyous person, but not a happy person. I experience joy and laughter and I can find fun in things, but I’m a depressed person. I’ve suffered with a lot of depression my whole life. When things happen in my soul, or whatever, the thing I’ve always held on to is ‘Well, it’ll pass. It’ll come in waves and it’ll get worse and it’ll get better.’ And that’s always brought me comfort. And this time, I literally was like, ‘I don’t care. I don’t even want it to get better.’”
