HIT ME HARD AND SOFT

“HIT ME HARD AND SOFT” is the third album of Billie Eilish that was released in 2024, it consists of 10 songs and has a runtime of 43 minutes with 45 seconds where, as the album says, you are hit hard and soft with the lyrics and music that play with different genres and topics. The album explores Billie’s new reflections and perspective about life, personal life versus fame, personal perception, and mainly heartbreak.

The album opens with “SKINNY” a slow song where Billie talks about the process, feelings and consequences about all the comments that she received a few years ago about her body. One of the first lyrics mentions that people believe that the key to be happy is being skinny, but Billie thinks that she hasn’t changed and maybe the old her was her truest self.

The song discusses how people want someone to hate, “the internet is hungry for the meanest kind of funny and somebody’s gotta feed it” the lyrics say, and this time it was Billie’s turn to be the target. It also talks about what people say about you can have a huge impact on your life and even when time passes you are still affected by it “and I still cry (...) and you know why”.

After “LUNCH”, a much more animated song that is focused on Billie Eilish’s sexual orientation, and “CHIHIRO” that the title makes reference to the main character of the movie “Spirited Away”, “BIRDS OF A FEATHER” comes up, where Billie expresses a belief of a long love that lasts until the end of life: “I’ll love you ‘til the day that I die (...) ‘til the light leaves my eyes.” Billie Eilish and FINNEAS have stated that the song refers to the overwhelm you feel with the commitment and attachment you have to the person you love, but the song is open for anyone to make an interpretation of the meaning.

“WILDFLOWER” is the fifth track of the album and it tells the story of Billie comforting a friend of hers after a complicated breakup, but then Billie gets in a relationship with the guy who was dating her friend. “THE GREATEST” begins with the slow sound of a guitar and Billie’s soft voice singing about loneliness, after that she expresses her anger because her partner did not show the same passion and appreciation as her.

The seventh track, and my personal favorite, “L’AMOUR DE MA VIE” explores Billie’s peace after ending a relationship where she lived through a lot of emotional chaos and even felt sick when they were together: “thought I was depressed or losing my mind, my stomach upset almost all of the time, but after I left it was obvious why.” In this song we can hear her sing with a careless tone and sometimes even laughing, making it more obvious that she is glad it is over. The song is split into two parts, the second one being called “OVER NOW” which was released as an extended version of “L’AMOUR DE MA VIE.”

The next song is “THE DINER” and narrates a story from the perspective of a stalker, which EIlish has had to manage for many years now. It follows with “BITTERSUITE”, a song that says how Billie is distant from her emotions and desires while idealizing a relationship that is bittersweet. I feel like this song has the best rhythm and I find the title very creative, considering that she changed the suffix “sweet” from the word “bittersweet” and replaced it with “suite”, making it clear to the listener that she was left alone and bitter in a hotel suite.
Finally, “BLUE” is the tenth and final melancholic song of the album that mixes 2 unreleased songs of the artist: “True Blue”, which was written by Eilish and FINNEAS when they were teenagers but was leaked in 2022, which inspired Billie to work on it again, and “Born Blue”, that was going to be on her second album “Happier than Ever”, but was discarded because she “just couldn't figure it out”. It references different songs of the album and it is an emotional trip that explores sadness, disillusionment and the search for authenticity. “Blue” is used to describe Billie’s complex and painful emotions.

In general, this whole album is an emotional journey where we can see Billie EIlish’s perspective of life and how she feels about certain situations, while we enjoy the rhythm of her songs and relating the songs to the people we love or have loved.