Billie Eilish’s latest album continues with her innovative musical narrative
A spider menacingly crawling out of her mouth. Black liquid running from her eyes with a destined path. Scenes that make you feel as if your mind has gone to its own mental amusement park.
These ingenious, bone-chilling visuals characterize seventeen-year-old Billie Eilish’s music videos, and with this not even being her main talent, her latest album WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? takes my mind, soul, and body on a brilliant adventure, especially considering her musical beginning.
Virtuoso from birth, the young singer debuted on the music streaming app Soundcloud in 2016. Her first song, “Ocean Eyes,” was penned by her brother Finneas, and once the song gained notable traction, they’ve been an unstoppable duo, collaborating while writing and singing.
Starting with track one—eccentrically titled “!!!!!!!”—Billie can be heard talking with who I presume to be her brother; an out of place sound, some laughs, and then “I have taken out my Invisalign, and this is the album” fills up the fourteen-second long track. And with such a playful demeanor shown, Billie’s sense of humor is displayed, making the listener realize that she is just seventeen. Invisalign? Out. Talent? In. Billie? Snapped.
With a daring, drastic change, “bad guy,” track two, starts with a fast-paced, deep drum beat. Then snapping adds on. Finally, Billie starts to sing. At first, she’s methodical with her soft yet powerful pronunciations of words, sticking to the established beat. Continuing with the beat, she then starts to elongate her words, claiming she’s the bad guy and that you might want to hold on to your dad.
Appearing to end, at 2:31 the beat retires, but a new one picks up quickly after. The voice, lyrics, and tone of Billie change. Nothing short of genius, this orderly shift hits different and ends swiftly.
In contrast to the dominating and unafraid lyrics and beat beforehand, “xanny” starts with a completely different pace and voice than “bad guy,” and at just track three, this variety of tones and effects on the listener she is able to produce shows her profound musical ability.
A timid voice starts this song. Quiet at first, the lyrics are slow to match the faded beat as if her voice is waiting to release, brewing like a potion. Then, as the drums pick up and Billie’s voice seemingly goes electrically charged at moments, the next four minutes become a mix of soft and powerful, something Billie has popularized in modern pop. Real and raw, this song exhibits exactly what I expected from this album.
Skipping over the four songs previously released before the album dropped—track nine, “my strange addiction,” reaches through the phone within the first six seconds. The song called upon my mind, daring me to make the connection of where the foreign male voice came from.
“No, Billie. I haven’t done that dance since my wife died,” is said by Michael Scott, the infamous manager on the equally infamous show The Office. She did that. Billie Eilish did that; she managed to slip in various scenes from an episode of The Office in a song without compromising any part of it.
Cutting in between the quotes, the chorus lyrics, “Bad, bad news: one of us is going to lose,” stick in my mind. Her timing of lyrics with the beat of the drum makes every word more amplified. From sweet to sickly, the fluidity of her voice on this track leaves it towards the top of my list.
Techno-inspired aspects—instead of TV show quotes—litter track eleven, “ilomilo.” With a soft voice and hard-hitting lyrics, this song single-handedly inspires my skin to buzz, hairs standing up on the back of my neck. The combination of her voice, enthralling beat, and the unforgettable lyrics are something I have yet to find in any other artist.
I get this feeling of utter talent from the acoustic ballad “i love you.” Placed as track thirteen, the final songs begin to wind down, and at four minutes and 52 seconds, all aspects of techno or her notorious edgy style flee from this song.
Redefining raw, Billie sings over a simple, hushed beat from a guitar; and it is an utter soft-post. Stripped down in every essence, “i love you” traveled straight through my ears to my heart. The lyrics, so soft in voice, are absolutely powerful as she sings about complicated relationships and the feeling of love with them. These unparalleled elements are the reason “i love you” is one of my favorites.
With the fourteen-track album almost over, Billie signs off with the appropriately named song “goodbye.” In this song, she slows down and revisits the lyrics of previous songs, wrapping up this experience neatly with a bow.
She wraps it as a gift to us. WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? is her gift to us. She provides a precarious peek into her mind, and I was left unarmed after my first listening.
Following in her previous path of noir pop, dreamy and inventive, Billie Eilish touches on all aspects of her psyche with haunting beats, remarkable lyrics, and striking emotions that she inspires on her latest album, and I’m hopelessly addicted.
Lynlee is a senior and is starting her final year in the midst of all this COVID-19 chaos, which is fitting for her strange luck. Room 139—home to The...