EGN NEWS DESK
Eilish’s 2019 debut album, “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?,” mapped gothic nightmares, adolescent obsessions and lingering traumas together with an occasional giggle. Her second, “Happier Than Ever” in 2021, reacted on to the eye, shock, exploitation, stalking, exhaustion and newfound energy that success introduced her.
“Skinny” is a hushed replace on Eilish’s superstardom. “Am I performing my age now?/Am I already on the best way out?,” she sings, together with ideas on her physique form, discovering unhazardous love, her sense of isolation and a resigned response to social media: “The web is hungry for the meanest form of humorous/and any person’s gotta feed it.”
Yet whilst “Skinny” connects again to “Happier Than Ever,” it’s a transition — a parting look as Eilish strikes from her very particular person state of affairs towards her model of extra generalized pop songwriting.
For an artistically self-conscious hitmaker like Eilish, the proverbially “tough” third album requires self-redefinition, rethinking the previous and difficult fair-weather followers. On “Hit Me Hard and Soft,” Eilish and Finneas additional broaden their sonic territory, reveling in electronics and plush subtleties, whereas they alternately honor and warp pop constructions. At the identical time, Eilish takes on a extra standard task: to jot down songs, notably love songs, that don’t should be all about her.
The album is a concise, 10-song set, a deliberate distinction to prolix streaming-era albums like those launched currently by Taylor Swift and Beyoncé. Eilish selected to not put out advance singles, and he or she has urged followers to take heed to the album as an entire, like an analog-era LP as a substitute of a monitor listing to be cherry-picked. Just in case 10 songs appears ungenerous somewhat than disciplined, Eilish makes a pre-emptive wisecrack; tacked onto the tip of the final tune, “Blue,” a seemingly informal Eilish asks, “So when can I hear the following one?”
